186 INDIAN SPOETING BIRDS 



The hen is a brown, narrow-crested, hen-tailed bird Hke 

 the white-crested kahj hen, but it is sHghtly darker, with a 

 shorter crest, which does not show the greyish tinge found in 

 the crest of the hen of the other species ; but the hen kahjes of 

 this type can hardly be separated with any readiness or certainty, 

 at any rate by a beginner. The young cock, gets his full plumage 

 during his first year, when about five months old ; three months' 

 old chicks are brown with some black bars above. 



The Nepal kalij is much the commonest of the pheasants of 

 its native state ; it is strictly a hill bird, with a rather limited 

 vertical range, never going down to the Tarai region, and 

 rarely ascending over 9,000 feet. It keeps to thick forest and 

 is a great percher, not only roosting on trees, but being 

 commonly met with perched in them as one makes one's vi^ay 

 through forest, according to Dr. Scully. It may be, however, 

 that the birds seen so much aloft have simply " treed " through 

 alarm in many cases. When approached, Dr. Scully says, they 

 fly rapidly down and run off. He found the best plan to shoot 

 them was" to wait, in winter, when the birds come down to the 

 foot of the hills near the trees to which they resort to roost, 

 though occasionally a shot could be got at one as it crossed a 

 path. He found the birds stood captivity well, and he reared 

 chicks to maturity, which conflicts with what others say about 

 the difhculty of keeping the pheasants of this group. But in 

 these matters a great deal must be allowed for skill, and Dr. 

 Scully, as a medical man, would naturally bring more intelligence 

 to his task than the ordinary " man in the street " who is 

 generally a hopeless bungler with live stock, even if he is 

 interested in them from a sportmg or natural history point of 

 view, unless he has had some experience with tame things. 



The birds usually go in pairs or small parties up to ten in 

 number. All that is known about the breeding is that a chick 

 so young as to measure only two inches in the closed wing, is 

 recorded by Scully as captured in June ; it was rufous brown on 

 the head and dirty buff below, with no stripes apparently. 



