THE CHEER PHEASANT. 49 



and outer ranges, among wooded crags. Although cheer are 

 never very plentiful, they are, as a rule, easily shot when 

 found, but they sometimes lie very close among long grass or 

 bushes. On coming by chance across a brood of cheer, when 

 after larger game that I did not care to disturb by firing, I 

 have even flung stones at them as they sat among the rocks, 

 before they flew. But they are not always so easy to find 

 when wanted, as I know from the time and trouble it once 

 cost me to secure a single good specimen, which I was very 

 anxious to shoot for a collection of Himalayan game-birds I 

 was trying to make before I left Shore. 



There was a craggy hill-top a few miles off, known as the 

 Drill-peak so named, it was said, from an eccentric com- 

 mandant of the outpost having been in the habit of punishing 

 his defaulters by sending them, in heavy marching order, to 

 the summit and back, whilst he watched their ascent, with a 

 telescope, from his quarters. This hill was reputed to be an 

 almost certain find for these pheasants about dawn ; so one 

 morning I turned out several hours before daylight, and 

 started with Kurbeer for its summit. On reaching our ground, 

 just as morning broke, sure enough we heard the cheer calling 

 loudly, and seemingly quite close below us. But after search- 

 ing for them among the long grass for hours, we had to retuni 

 without having seen a feather. Next morning we repeated 

 the experiment, with the same result. I was, however, amply 

 repaid for my trouble by a most singular and beautiful sight. 

 As the grey morning dawned, there appeared, stretching away 

 below us, a perfectly level and unbroken expanse of mist 

 except where some craggy hill-top, like a rocky islet, pro- 

 truded completely hiding everything beneath it, until it 

 was, seemingly, terminated by the irregular line of peaks and 

 ridges of the snowy range, which, in the dim uncertain light, 

 had the appearance of a rugged frozen coast abruptly rising 

 from the ocean. This extraordinary spectacle was of short 

 duration, and was succeeded by another almost as strange, 



D 



