656 On the Birds of the Island of Fornwsa. 



seen dui'ing three months. One of the cocks I shot, as I 

 then had a nnmber of living males. On my way to meet 

 Mr. Elvves on his arrival at Arizan I flushed the cock witli 

 two hens mentioned above. The latter instantly flew away 

 down the cliffs, but the cock remained behind among the 

 ferns chicking like a hen with chickens. I was accompanied 

 by a savage, and together we went to investigate, and when 

 within a few yards of the spot a fine cock Mikado rose 

 and went right over the cliffs like an arrow. I had a con- 

 tinuous view of him until he alighted in the trees below, 

 and very beautiftd he looked with his long white-barred 

 tail ; otherwise he appeared quite black on the wing. With 

 the exception mentioned above, all the skins I obtained were 

 those of birds which had died in the snares or had been 

 otherwise injured. I had from the first with much difl[iculty 

 impressed upon the savages that they were never to shoot 

 Pheasants, as there seemed to be so few in any one district. 

 At first I tried various methods of catching them, but none 

 succeeded ; so at last I was forced to depend upon the 

 savages' plan, which was effectual, but at the same time 

 the birds ran a great chance of being seriously damaged. 

 The snares were set for many miles along the ridge and 

 upper part of the forests, several hundreds being put down 

 simultaneously. It was out of the question trying to attract 

 them with grain, raisins, or other food. I tried these at 

 first without any success, and when I secured my first living 

 examples I soon found out the reason. It was most difficult 

 to get the birds to eat grain, one or two being particularly 

 obstinate in this respect. Had it not been for the soft 

 food 1 had with me, I question if I should have succeeded 

 in keeping some of them alive. As it was none of them 

 died, and Avith the exception of two Avhich were accidently 

 killed on Arizan all arrived safely in this country. In a 

 wild state (at any rate during the montlis I was there) they 

 appeared to live almost exclusively on green stuff. 1 was 

 able to identify the plant, which was growing everywhere, 

 through finding some freshly plucked leaves in the crop 

 of a bird I had skinned ; after that I had no further trouble 



