ii8 Practical Bird-Keeping. 



described ; it is a wonderful siglit, though not often visible even 

 to its owner. The letting down of the gular flap is momentary, 

 and the bird seems shy of exhibiting this when conscious of 

 being watched. The more common partial " show," when the 

 throat wattle swells and the wing is dropped to show the beau- 

 tiful spotted feathering to the female bird, can be seen at almost 

 any feeding time till the female begins to sit. 



One of the peculiarities of the Tragopans, or at least the 

 three species above named, which alone I have kept, is that they, 

 invariably in my experience, lay their eggs, not on the ground 

 like other Game-birds, but in trees and bushes, or disused nests 

 of other birds such as pigeons, or even in structures of their 

 own making. A Cabot's Tragopan once somehow discovered an 

 old Stockdove's nest, 17ft. from the ground, in some ivy on the 

 stem of a spruce fir. The latter was bare of branches, so that 

 the bird had to clamber along the spreading bough of a neigh- 

 bouring yew tree, till she could spring to the ivy. 



But little has been recorded of the habits of the Tragopan 

 in the wild state, and this propensity was a surprise to me. 

 Therefore at once we began to put up old Wood Pigeons' nests 

 or platforms, generally five or six feet from the ground. To these 

 the birds have always made slight additions, generally in the shape 

 of a lining of yew or spruce twigs. But though these platforms 

 are freely taken advantage of (and I must have had well over fifty 

 clutches of eggs laid here), on one occasion a Satyr Tragopan 

 declined our help and made rather a frail platform of spruce 

 twigs and branches, on which she laid her eggs. An old basket 

 lid, covered with a layer of roots and twigs, and firmly tied into 

 the fork of a bush will make a good nest. A lame, but other- 

 wise healthy Cabot's Tragopan this year did not lay till she 

 was provided with a mound like a large footstool, hidden under 

 a bush, with a depression on the top some eighteen inches 

 from the ground, which she could easily reach. This was taken 

 advantage of at once. I believe Tragopans to be by nature 

 monogamous, but in this last case the lame hen was one of two, 

 both of which laid fertile eggs to a single cock bird. 



Tragopans are quite at home in trees, and climb and run 

 up a sloping branch without making a mistake. My birds spend 



