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. 
“T 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 arule, 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 
‘jhooms, 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 small 
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 zwou/d 
follow close behind her, never coming in front to take food, 
