216 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXIV. 



at least as high as 6,000 feet in the Darjiling Terai and possibly in 

 the Kachin Hills and again on the other hand may sometimes be 

 found in dense scrub jungle in the Plains at some distance from the 

 mountain ranges. To make sure of finding it, however, one must 

 • work the lower hills below an elevation of some 2,000 feet, where it 

 will be found more especially haunting the ravines, valleys and low 

 hills where the mountains and plains meet. 



It does not mind much what kind of jungle it has to reside in as 

 long as there is ample undergrowth and, as I have already mentioned, 

 easy access to water. I have found it in the finest of evergreen 

 forest, in bamboo jtmgle, in scrub and grass, in abandoned cultiva- 

 tion, in the bush jungle growing on and in the edges of streams and 

 sometimes even amongst the tea bushes in tea gardens. 



It is generally considered to be a rare bird over most of the area in 

 which it occurs, but this is because it is such an inveterate skulker 

 that it is never seen unless one is content to spend much time and 

 trouble in searching for it, and even then it is necessary to know its 

 manners and customs before success can be hoped for. 



Once however one knows the character of this pheasant, its haunts 

 and its voice, it is not really a hard bird to locate. The cock crows, 

 morning and evening, especially during the breeding season, when 

 it may be heard for hoiirs on end. When thus employed it mounts 

 on an ant-hill, a stump, or even on the larger bough of some big 

 tree a few feet from the ground and thence calls every minute or so 

 with a loud chuckling, laughing note, sometimes accompanied by. a 

 flapping of the wings, the soft " frip-frip " of which is audible when 

 one is a few feet away. There is never, of course, the noisy flapping 

 indiilged in by the Jungle-fowl or some of the other pheasants, for 

 the plumage of the Polyplectron is so soft and lax that all feather 

 movement of this bird is very noiseless* reminding one very much 

 of the flight of owls and night-jars. 



The females do not crow, as far as i know, but they keep up a 

 conversational chuckle as they hunt about for food and I have often 

 had the good fortune as I lay nearly bxiried in fallen leaves and 

 dead grass, to have them come within a few feet of me. 



Both male and female when thus employed keep tip a continous 

 murmur of sound " croo-croo-chuckle-chuckle-croo-croo", every now 

 and then rising to a rather harsh rendering of the same syllables 

 and then again sinking to a whispering chuckle, inaudible a dozen 

 yards away. To watch them with success one must be absolutely 

 motionless, the slightest movement and they are off, running at a 

 great pace into safe hiding, otherwise they do not appear very 

 keen sighted and I have sometimes remained undiscovered for ten 

 minutes or a quarter of an hour, although well within view. 



Their actions are much like those of barndoor fowls, but are 

 slow, methodical and very secretive. Thus they do not hurl leaves. 



