xl INTRODUCTION 



sole desire was to detect danger at the earliest possible moment and at once fly up into 

 the tallest dead tree they could find, to command the widest outlook. In the course 

 of one trip along a river I observed over six hundred Peafowl, and without exception 

 this was their method of escape. When I related this to a friend who upheld the 

 universal protective idea, his answer was, '' Think of the six thousand birds concealed 

 by their plumage which you did not see ! " In certain limited areas where I came to 

 know the wanderings and range of the very individuals, I knew I had not overlooked 

 any Peafowl, but I could offer no conclusive proof of this, satisfactory to him. 



When I began my study of pheasants in the field I made up my mind to eliminate 

 all theory and a priori assumption and to try to form my judgments wholly on the 

 merits of the phenomena which presented themselves. Before I had completed my 

 studies of a single species I perceived an entirely new point of view, and one upon which 

 I have been satisfied to base all my assertions of protective or non-protective colouring. 

 In many of the localities where I studied pheasants at close range the sight of a man 

 was rare or unknown to the birds, and their reaction at his appearance was exactly the 

 same as took place when any danger presented itself. The pheasants' realization of 

 their own degree of protection seems to me an irrefutable solution of the question, 

 regardless of the fact that it must be to them wholly instinctive. I have taken this 

 up in detail under the various species, and shall present here only a brief summary. 



I found a very marked difference in reaction to danger, not only specifically, but 

 sexually, and even according to the age and plumage development of one sex. The 

 Impeyan is an excellent example. If, as very seldom happened, one came unexpectedly 

 and at short range upon a flock, the birds all took to wing simultaneously. If the 

 alarm came from a distance, even if this was considerable, the cocks flew at once, 

 while the females crouched for a longer or shorter time according to the degree of 

 danger. This I came to look for in all species where the male was noticeably more 

 brilliant in colouring than the female. The Golden, Amherst, Silver, Kaleege and 

 White-tailed Pheasants all exhibited it. I received additional emphasis as to this 

 relative amount of fear from other than direct ocular evidence. In many parts of 

 Burma where Kaleege were abundant, females appeared to be more numerous than 

 males, and yet the drives which the natives occasionally made resulted in the capture, 

 in snares or dead-falls, of four or five times as many cocks as hens. This was doubtless 

 due to the squatting, slinking escape of the brown hens, lying close until the line of 

 beaters had passed by. 



But this was only the most obvious proof which the birds themselves furnished. 

 Not only when I alarmed the Impeyans but when, as I watched from my blind, some 

 animal appeared in the distance and frightened them, I noticed time after time that the 

 half-grown males were intermediate in their reactions. Where several were in the flock, 

 they would squat at first but usually fly soon afterwards, following the more brilliant 

 adult cocks which had already disappeared far down the slope. The brown-tailed 

 Lobiophasis cocks in Borneo bore out the same delicate gradations. Government 

 surveyors and geologists in Calcutta, and several officers who were ardent entomologists 

 when off duty, had noticed these facts but without attaching any special significance to 

 them. No sportsman whom I questioned who hunted with dogs had observed anything 

 of the kind, obviously because the instant a dog appears every pheasant, of whatever 



