THE GAME BIRDS OF INDIA. 635 



Nidilication — Unknown. The young one described above was 

 obtained by Bailey on the 16th July, and another "well grown" 

 young one on the 24th August, whilst broods of freshly hatched 

 j^oung were seen on the 18th July. 



This would seem to show that th&j \^t in the last few days of 

 May, June, and possibly July. 



They evidently breed at very great elevations, from 10,000 feet 

 upwards, and the actual presence of snow can be no deterrent to 

 their nesting and hatching. 



General habits. — For a long time the only known specimen of 

 this bird was a very imperfect skin obtained by Mr. Elwes from a 

 Lieutenant Harman, who had himself received it from one of his 

 native surveyors. This he said he had procured it 160 miles east 

 of Lhasa at an elevation of about 6,000 feet, where it was found in 

 flocks in winter. This was in 1881, and nothing more was ascer- 

 tained about the pheasant, its habits and habitat until 1918, when 

 Capt. F. M. Bailejr sent home a most valuable, though small, 

 collection of bird skins, amongst which there was a beautiful series 

 of Elwes' Eared Pheasants, containing fine examples of males, 

 females and young. 



In the Bombay Natural History Jou.rnal, Capt. Bailey gives a yqvj 

 interesting account of the habits of this beautiful bird. He writes : 

 " This bird occurs in Po Me, where I found feathers and 

 " scratchings, though I was- never fortunate enough to come on 

 *' the birds themselves. It is common in the Lower Tsangpo 

 " Vallej^ in Tibet. The farthest point west at which we saw it 

 " was the east side, Putrang La, where there were numbers in 

 " the rhododendron scrub at about 15,500 feet. The lowest 

 " elevation at which we found this pheasant in the Tsangpo 

 " Valley was at about 9,300 feet at Gyala, but I saw traces of 

 " them in Po Me at about 8,500 feet. In the valley of the 

 " Tsangpo itself the highest point upstream at which we found 

 " these birds was the neighbourhood of Nang Dzong. They 

 ' ' were plentiful in the valley of the Char, which is a branch 

 " of the Subansiri, bat none were found west of the Pu La, 

 " which is the watershed between the Tsang Po and Subansiri 

 '• in this region. There were many on the Takarla and the Le 

 '• La. They were heard calling near Natrampa on the Lower 

 " Chayul Valley, but thej^do not appear to extend west of these 

 "places. They were said to be common at Tsari in winter, 

 "but we saw none. These birds move; about in flocks of 

 "about 5 or 10 and frequent forest-covered hills and the 

 " higher elevations, dwarf rhododendron jungle, where they 

 " feed on the grassy clearings among the bushes. They are 

 " very noisy in the early mornings, and less so in the evening. 

 " Their call is like that of C. tibetamtm. When alarmed, 



