INTRODUCTION xli 



species or sex, instantly flies up into a tree. Still other facts emphasized the truth of 

 the sex distinction. In the Brown Eared-Pheasants and the Cheer the sexes are very 

 similar, and it is the common experience of hunters who know these birds that both 

 cocks and hens squat or slink quietly away upon the approach of danger. Indeed, so 

 complete is the dependence of Cheer upon their resemblance to the turf of their moun- 

 tain meadows that when once well alarmed it is almost impossible to flush them without 

 a dog. They will lie close until one's foot is almost upon them. Sportsmen write of 

 knocking them over with a stick and even catching them in the hand, a feat which would 

 be unthinkable in the case of the more brilliant pheasants. 



Here we have a test of protection which seems to have no weak spot. There is no 

 question of our considering it with anthropomorphic vision or influencing the birds 

 in any way. Natural selection, or trial and error, or whatever one may wish to call it, 

 has etched into the instinctive actions of the birds, hereditary reactions to danger nicely 

 adjusted and synchronized with the sombreness or brilliancy of the plumage. It seems 

 to me we have here at least taken one step in the right direction of accurately gauging 

 the relative value to the birds of the general sum of their colouring. 



In a tropical jungle even brilliantly coloured birds have a better chance of being 

 undetected than in northern forests, but the one secret of this is immobility. I have 

 watched Firebacks at close range and have been impressed with the way their manner 

 of feeding contributed toward this end. They seized the morsels of food with sudden 

 jerks of the head and neck, each peck being followed by a much longer period of 

 immobility. Or if two or three pecks were made at one time, the bird would then 

 straighten up and stand like a statue for a minute or more. Thus the percentage of 

 motion to that of immobility in these birds is very small, and the consequent chances 

 of observation by any enemy coming into view are greatly reduced. Again, intensive 

 watching showed a decided difference in the actions of fully adult and partly grown birds 

 of both sexes, the latter physically distinguishable only by their shorter spurs, but 

 mentally by a very apparent laxness and abstraction. They were on guard only part 

 of the time and apparently still depended on their parents or companions for warning. 



Indian Peahens trust to their comparative sombre plumage and are far less wary 

 than cocks, more especially toward four-footed enemies than to man, but I have seen 

 a cock, in very tall grass, stand for a while with head and neck rigid while he watched 

 me in the distance. The resemblance to the crooked sticks which projected here and 

 there was perfect, but he permitted no closer approach. All truly wild Peacocks in 

 jungle or on river banks flew at once and did not stop until they reached some lofty 

 bare perch, where their grass-green bodies and sky-blue necks became a monochrome 

 black silhouetted against the bright clouds. 



The great Argus Pheasant, while ever ready to slip away in the opposite direction 

 whenever its keen ears told it of some approaching danger, on occasion behaves in 

 a manner which is the very antithesis of the Peacock. When a troop of gibbons have 

 dashed past overhead and several of their number swung noisily down among the 

 branches close to the ground, in frantic pursuit of one another, I have seen an Argus 

 crouch flat, body, neck and head pressed close to the ground, its mottled plumage 

 and crinkled tail-feathers merging perfectly with the lights and shadows of the forest 

 floor. The Bornean Wattled Pheasant, with its great semicircular fan of blazing white 



