466 NOVELTIES. 



execution, and who, although they fully believed that they had 

 been within an ace of death, equally treated the matter as a 

 most amusing adventure. Indeed, they went off in such high 

 spirits that I suspected that they had seen through the joke, 

 and that we should see no more of them ; but the Envoy told 

 me not to fear. He said : " These are not men, they are mere 

 animals ; unless you frighten them you can get nothing done ; 

 they always meant to go ; all this has been done in the hopes 

 of getting something more out of us ; they are in high delight 

 now, because they can easily get the Pheasants without any 

 real danger, and though they have failed to extort more, what 

 you promised them at first is to them what a crore would be 

 to you ; they never saw so much money in their whole lives !" 



Sure enough, within the week they returned with one beau- 

 tiful fresh skin and one perfectly uninjured bird in a cage, 

 both unfortunately males. According to their account, the 

 first day they began trapping they were scented, their scouts 

 driven in, and they had to fly. This was probably true, because, 

 as they were to be paid a large sum per bird, once they were 

 on the ground they would assuredly not have contented them- 

 selves with securing only two. Being therefore probably true, it 

 was out of the question to think of sending them back again, 

 and for the nonce I had to be satisfied with the two birds. 



When I exhibited the skin at the capital the Maharaja was 

 delighted. Neither he nor any one there had ever before seen 

 the bird, and he has kindly promised to procure me more and 

 especially to get me females. Now that I have shown that the 

 bird does exist, and can be got, His Highness is pretty sure 

 to insist on a good supply henceforth. 



The live bird, though a full-grown cock, became perfectly 

 tame in a few days, and a great favourite in the camp. It 

 would eat bread, boiled rice, winged white-ants, moths, taking 

 them gingerly out of our hands. At last I thought I really 

 had a prize for the Zoo, something worth sending. Alas the 

 last day I was in the Eastern Hills, about the middle of the 

 night, the huts in which my servants were, and in which was 

 also my poor Pheasant, suddenly caught fire. How, we do not 

 know, but made of dry palm and cane leaves, they were like 

 tinder, and went off almost like gunpowder. The men tumbled 

 out somehow, without shoes, clothes and bedding and all more or 

 less singed, but everything was destroyed, and amongst the 

 rest our poor pet. It was under a heavy wooden trestle which 

 was only slightly charred, and the bird itself was not burnt 

 but had only had its feathers somewhat singed, and had ap- 

 parently died from suffocation. 



According to the accounts of my savages these birds live in 

 dense hill forests at elevations of from 2,500 feet (the height 



