PLATE XII 



TEMMINCK'S TRAGOPAN 



Tragopan temmincki (J. E. Gray) 



Although the most widely distributed, yet this is the least known of its group. Its home is in the 

 great heart of China, far from the beaten trails which all travellers follow, and among the oaks and 

 rhododendrons of high altitudes. This Tragopan spends much of its time among their gnarly branches, 

 feeds on their buds and fashions its nest in the dense foliage. Few white men have seen it wild, but the 

 Chinese frequently trap it. They have spread out the great curious throat wattle and have found a 

 resemblance in its pattern to one of their written characters ; so to them the Tragopan is T'so-che, the bird 

 of longevity. 



