THE GAME BIRDS OF INDIA. 207 



" yards square, until nothing but the bare clean earth remains, 

 " and thereafter he keeps this place scrnpulouslj^ clean, remov- 

 " ing carefully every dead leaf or twig that may happen to fall 

 " on it from the trees above. 



" These cleared spaces are undoubtedly used as dancing 

 " grounds, but personally I have never seen a bird dancing in 

 " them, but have always found the proprietor either seated 

 " quietly in, or moving backwards and forwards slowly about 

 '•them, calling at short intervals, except in the morning and 

 " evening, when they roam about to feed and drink. The 

 " males are always to be found at home, and they roost at night 

 " on some tree quite close by. 



" They are the most difficult birds I know of to approach. 

 " A male is heard calling, and you gradually follow up the 

 " sound, taking care not to make the slightest noise, till at 

 " last the bird calls within a few yards of you, and is only 

 " hidden by the denseness of the intervening foliage. You 

 "creep forward, hardly daring to breathe, and suddenly emerge 

 " on the open space, but the space is empt}^; the bird has 

 " either caught sight of or heard or smelt you, and has run off 

 " quietly. They will never rise, even when pursued by a dog, 

 " if they can possibly avoid it, but run very swiftly away, 

 " always choosing the densest and most impenetrable part of 

 " the forest to retreat through. When once the cleared space 

 " is discovered, it is merely a work of a little patience to 

 " secure the bird by trapping it. The easiest way is to run 

 " a low fence of cut scrub round the spot, leaving four openings 

 "just sufficiently "wide to enable the bird to pass through, and 

 " in these openings to place nooses fastened to the end of a 

 " pliant sapling, which is bent and kept down by a catch. This 

 " is the usual wa}^, and the one I adopted to secure most of my 

 " specimens, as I found it as difficult to shoot as it was easy 

 "to trap them. The natives, however, have other ways of 

 " securing them, all dependent on taking advantage of the birds 

 " idiosyncracy about keeping its home clean. 



" One of these plans, which, though I have never actually 

 " seen it in operation, is, I am informed, really practised, is as 

 " follows : — A bit of bamboo, about 18 or 20 inches long, and 

 " a quarter of an inch wide, is shaved down till it is thethick- 

 " ness of writing-paper, the edges being as sharp as a razor. 

 " This narrow pliant piece ends in a stout sort of handle atone 

 " end, 6 or 8 inches long, which is driven firmly into the 

 " ground in the middle of the cleared space. 



" The bird, in trying to remove it, scratches and pecks at 

 "it, trying to dig it up, but finding all its efforts vain, it 

 "twists the narrow pliant portion several times round its neck, 



