Thk Gamk Birds. 117 



plan to sink champagne bottles filled with water up to their 

 necks in the ground, and to stick the brandies therein. If this 

 is done in a shady place, the foliage will keep fresh for some 

 days even in summer. I have found Austrian Pine preferred 

 to Scotch Fir, and my birds would never touch Larch foliage ; 

 though I believe in Scotland the contrary has been noted, 



I once had four hybrid chicks hatched from eggs laid 

 by a tame Redgrouse mated with a Blackcock. Circumstances 

 necessitated their being placed with the ordinary Pheasants in 

 the rearing field, and I believe they were exposed to too much 

 sun, which, in a hot summer, is a source of danger to these 

 natives of cool uplands, and they only survived a few days. 



I now pass to the Tragopans, than which there are no 

 more interesting Game-birds. I have for some years kept 

 examples of three species : Temminck's, Cabots' and the Satyr 

 Tragopan. I have bred them all repeatedly. The}^ require 

 shelter throughout the year, such as the)' can find for themselves 

 in summer in thick Yew bushes, or Spruce trees headed back. 

 But in the North of England at any rate, I find they are better 

 shut into dry sheds in winter, with a peat moss floor and plenty 

 of rough perches to climb about on. Like so many mountain 

 species, whether mammals, birds or plants, Tragopans when 

 brought down to low altitudes, seem very sensitive to damp cold,^ 

 though they look happy enough on a dry frosty day. Mine get, 

 and I think require, a variety of food — wheat, barley, hemp and 

 Canary seed, green stuff and any common fruit that is available. 

 Of monkey and tiger nuts, Tragopans and Monals are very fond, 

 and also mine get like most of my birds Barley meal scalded 

 with Poultry meal into a "crumbly" mass. I do not think 

 Tragopans will live long upon hard grain alone. When first 

 imported, Tragopans are sometimes difiicult subjects, and must 

 be tempted by raisins, earth worms, soaked maize, or in fact 

 anything that they will eat. The young cocks do not come into 

 colour till the second autumn, but before the first winter there 

 will generally be a few feathers of the second plumage about 

 the head and neck, enough to indicate their sex. The hens will 

 sometimes lay in their second summer, but more often not. 



The full display of the male Tragopan has often been 



