26o ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIP.RARY. 



been a dweller in the spot, seems, as it were, necessary to its 



existence 



"Their call is a loud whistling chuckle or chirrup; it may 

 occasionally be heard from the midst of some thicket or coppice 

 at any hour of the day, but is not of very frequent occurrence. 

 It is generally uttered when the bird rises, and, if it flies into 

 a tree near, is often continued some time. When flushed by a 

 cat or a small animal, this chuckling is always loud and earnest. 

 The Kalij is very pugnacious, and the males have frequent 

 battles. On one occasion I had shot a male, which lay flutter- 

 ing on the ground in its death struggles, when another rushed 

 out of the jungle and attacked it with the greatest fury, though 

 I was standing reloading the gun close by. The male often 

 makes a singular drumming noise wath its wings, not unlike the 

 sound produced by shaking in the air a stiff piece of cloth. It 

 is heard only in the pairing-season ; but whether to attract the 

 attention of the females or in defiance of his fellows, I cannot 

 say, as I have never seen the bird in the act, though often led 

 to the spot where they were by the sound." 



Mr. Hume remarks, however, "This is certainly not to 

 attract the females, but solely as a defiance. If you peg out a 

 tame male of the allied Vermicellated Pheasant in the breeding- 

 season, as is commonly done in Burma, surrounding him with 

 snares, and then set your male drumming, by imitating the 

 sound with a piece of stiff cloth, male after male replies, rushes 

 in at your bird and gets caught in the snares, but no female 

 ever puts in an appearance, or is ever thus snared.'' 



According to Mr. Wilson, the species feeds on roots, grubs, 

 insects, seeds and berries, and the leaves and shoots of shrubs. 

 The following remarks of Captain J. H. Baldwin are worth 

 quoting. He says : " I have flushed this Pheasant and the 

 common Red Jungle Fow^l from the same description of cover 

 at the foot of the hills. The call of the bird, which may be 

 heard at all times of the day, is a sharp twut, iwiit, iwuf, some- 

 times very low, wdth a long pause between each note, then 



