THE PEACOCK-PHEASANTS. 63 



the well-wooded parts of the district ; and during the rainy 

 season they retire to the dense forests and bamboo jungle to 

 breed, and at this season the call is never heard. 



*' I have shot dozens of this bird, some of which had two 

 and three spurs, but in no case did I ever see more than four 

 on one leg, and one peculiarity is that they hardly ever have 

 the same number of spurs on each leg. The Kookies have an 

 idea that an additional spur grows every year ; but, during the 

 five years' experience I had of them, I never saw more than 

 the number mentioned above. The females have a corn on 

 each leg where the spur is in the male. 



"These birds go about in pairs generally, but on one occa- 

 sion, in December, while riding through a forest pathway, I 

 came across a party of four, one male and three females, the 

 latter easily distinguishable by their smaller size and duller 

 colours. 



"As a rule, these Pheasants are very shy, and terrible runners 

 and skulks, and without a good dog it is impossible to secure 

 a winged bird. They are delicious eating. . . ." 



Writing from North-east Cachar, Mr. Inglis remarks : — 

 "The Kookies snare numbers of the Polyplectron on their 

 ^jhoo7ns^ or cultivation clearings, inside the forests. The snare 

 consists generally of a sapling, or branch of a tree, bent towards 

 the ground ; one end of a piece of string is fastened to the 

 sapling, and on the other end is a noose ; the latter is spread 

 round a small hole in the earth ; the trap itself is a simple con- 

 trivance of a few split pieces of bamboo ; the bait is a s'nall 

 red berry of which the bird is very fond ; the berry is firmly 

 attached to the trap, and the bird pecking at the berry releases 

 the catch, the sapling flies up, and the bird is noosed by the 

 neck or feet, or sometimes both." 



We are told that when the young of this species were 

 first hatched in the Zoological Gardens, a Bantam Hen was 

 employed as a foster-mother, and that the chicks would 

 follow close behind her, never coming in front to take food, 



