THE GAME BIRDS OF INDIA. 



,000 



01- more up to 9,000 or 10,000. Tlic lowest point at wliicli (i 

 win-Aiisteii got it ^vas ou the Shiroifnra peaks at between 7,( 

 and 9,000 feet; in the Eastern Chin Hills it is fonnd lietween 4,000 

 and 7,000 feet, and at Haka at about 1,000 feet and upwards, whilst 

 in the extreme North of the Chin Hills it is found from G,000 t<> 

 9,000 feet. 



It may, of course, wander down sometimes as low as 2,500 feet in 

 the coldest part of the cold weather, but 1 think such occasions 

 must be of the rarest. 



Again it does not appear to be a denizen of the dense, tropical 

 and more or less evergreen forests of the hills of the lower eleva- 

 tions, but to haunt the more open oak, pine and other forests and 

 grass lands which are to be found fiom 4,000 feet upwards. Mr. 

 J. P. Cook found it frequenting heavy patches of grass and dwarf 

 date palm in more or less open grass land mixed with patches of 

 forest and found that they had been feeding on acorns. Again, 

 near Fort White one of my correspondents informs me that he 

 always obtained these pheasants 



" in forest growing on very rocky, broken hillsides, where the 

 " undergrowth was light, except for open patches of bracken 

 " and grass, and the trees, for the most part, stunted and grow- 

 " iug well apart from one another. If not in this kind of 

 " forest, they were to be found in the open grass-land, feed- 

 " mg in the more open land, and lying up during the hotter 

 "hours in the denser patches." 

 Finn, who was the first writer to draw attention to the differ- 

 ence between ]Mrs. Hume's Barred-Back Pheasant and the Eastern 

 Burmese form, quotes at some length an interesting letter from a 

 Mr. Turner. 



" I had left my camp, which was pitched some six miles 

 " from Fort White, on the evening of Gth March, to go after 

 '•some Hill Partridges, which one of my men had seen just 

 ''below my camp; not seeing any signs of them, I Avalked 

 " on for about a mile, and w^as returning along the road 

 " (the Fort White-Kalemyo Koad) w^hen, glancing down the 

 " liJmd, I saw something grey disappearing in the long grass 

 "just below^ me. I immediately started to go after it, when 

 "I saw what appeared to me to be a light blue streak just dis- 

 " appearing. I immediately fired, but it was with faint hope 

 " I walked up to the spot, as not only did I think the bird 

 "had disappeared before I shot, but I had just at the moment 

 " of shoo\ing, slipped. I was therefore very much delighted 

 " when I saw the blue streak tumbling down the l-hnd below 

 " me. I immediately went after and secured him ; as I was 

 " descending the original gi*ey bird, which was evidently the 

 " female, got up and flew a short distance. I walked lier up. 



