Birds of the Indian Hills 



ranges of moderate elevation, on which all the 

 hill-stations are situated, the kalij, the cheer, 

 and the koklas pheasants are common. Of 

 these three the kalij is the only one likely to 

 be seen in the ordinary course of a walk. The 

 others are not likely to show themselves unless 

 flushed by a dog. 



The white-crested kalij-pheasant (Gennceus 

 albicristatus) may occasionally be seen in the 

 vicinity of a village. 



The bird does not come up to the English- 

 man's ideal of a pheasant. The bushy tail 

 causes it to look rather like a product of the 

 farmyard. The cock is over two feet in length, 

 the hen is five inches shorter. The plumage 

 of the former is dark brown, tinged with blue, 

 each feather having a pale margin. The rump 

 is white with broad black bars. The hen is 

 uniformly brown, each feather having a narrow 

 buff margin. Both sexes rejoice in a long 

 backwardly-directed crest and a patch of bare 

 crimson skin round each eye. The tail is 

 much shorter and more bushy than that of the 

 English pheasant. The crest is white in the 

 cock and reddish yellow in the hen. Baldwin 

 describes the call of this pheasant as " a sharp 

 tzvuty tzvut, twut. Sometimes very low, with a 



IOO 



