GALLINACEOUS BIRDS. 239 



and upper wing-covers than on the back ; the throat-feathers are light grey, unspotted ; and the 

 centre tail-feathers deep bro\vn, marked with light grey; those at the sides are greyish, %vith a 

 green gloss. 



Jerdon tells us the Sikkim Black Pheasant is met vrith in Nepaul, in some portions of the country 

 being replaced by Gallophasis Horsfiddii. He informs us that about Darjeeling it is the only Pheasant 

 at all common, and is not unfrequently put up on the roadside by dogs, when it at once takes refuge 

 in trees. It is found at an altitude of from 3,000 to nearly 8,000 feet. It walks and runs with its tail 

 semi-erect, and frequents both forests and bushy and grassy ground, coming to the fields and to more 

 open spaces to feed in the morning and evening. Its eggs are occasionally found by the coolies, when 

 weeding the tea-gardens in June and July, and are usually from five to eight in number. Its call 

 sounds something like " koorchi-koorchi," at other times it resembles " kooruk-kooruk." 



THE KELITSCH, OR WHITE-CRESTED KALEEGE PHEASANT. 



The Kehtsch, or White-Crested Kaleege Pheasant {Gallophasis albocristafus), has the 

 head, throat, mantle, and tail of a lustrous blueish black; the rump-feathers are dull white, marked with 

 pale black; the crest is white; the long breast-feathers greyish white; and the rest of the under side 

 dark grey. The eye is brown, the bare cheek red, the beak dark grey, and the foot blueish grey. 

 The hen bird is scarcely distinguishable from the female KirriL 



Of the life and habits of these birds we know but little, except from the -writings of 

 " Mountaineer," who has, however, observed and described them with his usual exactness. " The 

 well-known Kaleege," says he, " is most abundant in the lower regions ; it is common in the Dhoon 

 at the foot of the hills, in all the lower valleys, and everywhere to an elevation of about 8,000 feet. 

 From this it becomes scarcer, though a few are found still higher. It appears to be more unsuspicious 

 of man than the rest of our Pheasants ; it comes much closer to his habitations, and from being 

 so often found near the villages and roadsides, is regarded by all as the most common, though 

 in their respective districts the Monauls are more numerous. In the lower regions it is found in every 

 description of forest from the foot to the summit of the hills, but is most partial to' low coppice 

 and jungle, and wooded ravines or hollows. In the interior it frequents the scattered jungle 

 at the borders of the dense forest, thickets near old deserted patches of cultivation, old cow-sheds and 

 the like, coppices near the villages and roads, and, in fact, forest and jungle of every kind except the 

 distant and remote woods, in which it is seldom found. The presence of man, or some trace that 

 he has once been a dweller in the spot, seems as it were necessary to its existence. 



" The Kaleege is not very gregarious ; three or four are often found together, and ten or tweh-e 

 may sometimes be put out of one small coppice, but they seem in a great measure independent 

 of each other, much like our English Pheasants. When disturbed, if feeding or on the move, they 

 generally run, and do not often get up unjess surprised suddenly and closely, or forced by dogs, or 

 else they lie rather close in thick cover. They are never very shy, and where not unceasingly annoyed 

 by sportsmen or skikarees are as tame as could be wished. In walking up a ravine or hill-side, if put 

 up by dogs a little distance above, they will often fly into the trees close above one's head, and two 

 Or three will allow themselves to be quietly knocked over in succession. When flushed from 

 any place where they have sheltered, whether on the ground or aloft, they fly off to some distant cover, 

 and alight on the ground in preference to the tree. Their call is a loud whistling chuckle or chirrup ; 

 it may be occasionally heard from the midst of some thicket or coppice at any hour of the day, 

 but is not of frequent occurrence. It is generally uttered when the bird rises, and if it flies into 

 a neighbouring tree is often continued for some time. Wlien flushed by a cat or some small animal, 

 this chuckling is always loud and earnest. 



