Practical Bird-Keeping.



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But little lias been recorded of the habits of the Tragopan

in the wild state, and this propensity was a surprise to me.

Therefore at once we began to put up old Wood Pigeons’ nests

or platforms, generally five or six feer from the ground. To these

the birds have always made slight additions, generally in the shape

of a lining of yew or spruce twigs. But though these platforms

are freely taken advantage of (and I must have had well over fifty

clutches of eggs laid here), on one occasion a Satyr Tragopan

declined our help and made rather a frail platform of spruce

twigs and branches, on which she laid her eggs. An old basket

lid, covered with a layer of roots and twigs, and firmly tied into

the fork of a bush will make a good nest. A lame, but other¬

wise healthy Cabot’s Tragopan this year did not lay till she

was provided with a mound like a large footstool, hidden under

a bush, with a depression on the top some eighteen inches

from the ground, which she conld easily reach. This was taken

advantage of at once. I believe Tragopans to be by nature

monogamous, but in this last case the lame hen was one of two,

both of which laid fertile eggs to a single cock bird.


Tragopans are quite at home in trees, and climb and run

up a sloping branch without making a mistake. My birds spend

much of their time, especially in wet weather, on their perches,

and the young fly up and spring from branch to branch within

a few days of hatching, and are very well provided with flight

feathers at a tender age, as I have elsewhere recorded.


After a few weeks the young Tragopans, like the Monals,

show an inclination to perch at night, and as they are by that

time probably too large for the hen (if they are hatched under a

foster mother) to properly brood. It is best to run her into a dry

shed at night provided with perches of various heights. I have

always taken the eggs and hatched them under small hens.

Silkies and Game Bantams, as the clutches are small, two or

three eggs, generally the former, and this probably induces the

bird to lay again, After ten days or a fortnight, the young thrive

best if allowed to run free during the day with the hen in some

quiet place where the grass is allowed to grow long. Fresh ants’

eggs, gentles, chopped egg, lettuce and meal, and when available,

red currants or raspberries are all suitable food.



