THE GAME BIRDS OF INDIA. 219 



partner, i.e., possesses the greater vital energy, such as the Hema- 

 podes. Painted Snipes, etc., the signs of such superiority will be 

 found in this sex, as in the males of other birds, either in more 

 brilliant colouration or extravagance in some portion of the plumage, 

 generally, if not invariably, connected with a coi-responding display. 



As vitality is at its highest during the breeding season so it 

 follows that the signs or results of this vitality often come into 

 existence on the approach of this period and again disappear at the 

 end of it, though in many birds they have in the course of ages 

 become permanent or partially so. 



To return, however, to the object of the present article. A 

 sight of the display of the Peacock-Pheasant is one not likely to be 

 often viewed in a state of nature for I know of no game bird which 

 is a more determined hider or which is harder to force out of thick 

 jungle. A dog, of course, if a persistent worker, will eventually 

 put it up ; and when the pheasant can no longer escape by running, 

 it will in such cases take refuge in the bough of a tree when it will 

 often allow of an approach for an easy shot. 



But for its beauty and for the fact that it is fairly good eating, 

 it would not be worth shooting, for its flight is comparatively slow 

 and feeble and its soft lax plumage offers no resistance to shot. 



The flesh is rather hard and dry, but white and of quite good 

 flavour. 



Polyplectrons are omnivorous feeders but on the whole more 

 vegetarian than insectivorous. They devour grain of all kinds, 

 including hill rice ; fruit, especially the different fici, jhamans or 

 wild plums and the Ber fruit, and, above all, the seed of the bamboo. 

 "When stretches of bamboos are in seed and the latter begins to fall 

 they become the resort of all kinds of game birds, and food is for 

 the time being so plentiful that the birds become extraordinarily fat 

 and heavy. I have also watched these pheasants greedily feeding 

 on white ants and have taken the remains of snails, centipedes, and 

 worms from their stomachs, and ha\^e also known them to feed on ' 

 the young shoots of mustard and other green crops. 



POLYPLECTRON MALACCENSIS. 



The Malay Peacoch- Pheasant. 



Phasianus malaccensis. — Scop., Del. Flor. et Faun. Insubr., pt. 

 II., p. 93 (1786). 



Polypledron chinquis. — Temm., Pig. et Gall., II., p. 363 (1813); 

 III., p. 675 (1815) (part). 



Diplectron bicalcaratum. — VieilL, Gal. des Ois., II., p. 17 (1825) 

 (part). 



Polyphdron bicalcaratum. — Gray, List- of B., pt. III., Gall., p. 22 

 (1844); Blyth, Cat. Mus. As. Soc., p. 242 (1849); Gould, B. of 



