CHEER PHEASANT 199 



though exhibiting the same colours as the male's, is not so 

 distinctly marked, the cock's tail being boldly banded with black- 

 and-tan on a bright buff ground, and forming a very noticeable 

 feature in his appearance. Cock Cheer are much larger than 

 hens, weighing about three pounds and often more, while the 

 hens weigh two to two and a half; they look about as big as our 

 cock pheasants at home, and this is the only one of our common 

 hill pheasants, rightly so-called or not, which will strike anyone 

 as closely like the home bird, in spite of its dull colour. 



Its note, however, is, like its plumage, very unlike the 

 common pheasant's, being a sort of song, rendered by Wilson 

 as " chii'-a-pir, chir-a-pir, chir chir, chirwa, chinva" ; but the 

 tune varies, and there is a good deal of it to be heard, for 

 hens crow as well as cocks, and in dull weather at any time 

 in the day, though the usual calling-time is daybreak and dusk. 



The cocks have spurs, and presumably they fight, for they 

 are excessively spiteful in their demeanour to people when in 

 captivity — more so, I think, than any other species ; and they 

 have considerable power in their strong bills, which they use 

 for grubbing up roots, which are their favourite food, though they 

 also partake of the other usual articles of pheasant diet, with 

 the exception of herbage, for which they do not care. 



Although distributed all along the Himalayas — to which 

 range it is confined — and a common bird, the cheer is not to be 

 found everywhere, its requirements being somewhat special. 

 Although, like our pheasants generally, it ascends the hills in hot 

 weather and descends in winter, it does not go above 10,000 feet 

 or come down below 4,000, nor go outside the wooded regions. 

 Even here Cheer are local, and the special grounds for them are, 

 according to Hume, " the Dangs or precipitous places, so 

 common in many parts of the interior ; not vast bare cliffs, 

 but a whole congeries of little cliffs one above the other, each 

 perhaps from fifteen to thirty feet high, broken up by ledges, 

 on which a man could barely walk, but thickly set with grass and 

 bushes, and out of which grow up stunted trees, and from which 

 hang down curious skeins of grey roots and mighty garlands of 

 creepers." By waiting at the foot of such a place good shots may 

 be got as the birds are driven down from above, but they come 



