THE KALIJ PHEASANTS. 265 



on the wing. When, however, the males are in the fighting 

 humour — which they usually are about breeding-time — their 

 call, as they advance towards each other, is l koor koor, waak 

 waak 'y the former being the threatening, and the latter the 

 attacking note. They also at times answer each other's calls 

 in the jungles. 



"In fine weather the male often makes a sharp drumming 

 noise by beating his wings against his sides, somewhat after 

 the style of the wing-flapping of a domestic cock preparatory 

 to crowing from some elevated place; but instead of the cock's 

 few leisurely flaps, the Kalij strikes oftener and smarter, pro- 

 ducing a sound more like drumming than flapping. . . . 



" The natives look on the drumming of the Kalij as a sure 

 sign of approaching rain. It is heard at all seasons of the year, 

 but most frequently before the setting in of the rainy season ; 

 at other times generally just before a fall of rain. 



" The food of the Kalij is varied in the extreme. It eats 

 almost everything in the shape of seeds, fruit, and insects, but 

 is particularly fond of the larvae of beetles out of cow-dung and 

 decayed wood, and of several of the jungle yams which bear 

 tubers along their vines at the axils of the leaves. When the 

 vine-borne tubers are exhausted, it will scratch away the soil to 

 get at those underground." 



Nest and Eggs. — Similar to those of G. albocristatus. The 

 average measurement of the latter is 1-91 by 1*47 inch. 



The three Himalayan species of Kalij which I have just 

 dealt with are very easily distinguished one from another, and 

 so far as I know do not intergrade, though it is possible that 

 where the range of G. kucomelanus touches or overlaps (if it 

 does either) the habitats of G. albocristatus and G. me/anono- 

 tus, respectively to the west and east, intermediate forms may 

 occur. When we consider the Burmese Pheasants, however, 

 the different forms of Kalij are by no means so easily dealt 

 with ; for, though there are three well-marked principal forms, 



