TEMMINCK'S TRAGOPAN 89 



noiseless flaps, and, with a vigorous shake, ruffled up and then settled its plumage. At 

 last the bird leaped to the ground, and after watching it peck among the dead leaves 

 for a time, I shot it. 



It was in full plumage and entirely through its moult. The horns and lappet were 

 very inconspicuous, shrivelled up, indeed in the lowest condition of annual development. 

 They were pale blue, the lappet varied with dusky reddish-brown. Mr. Scott's birds, 

 shot at the end of March near the Sadon frontier, many miles to. the north and east, had 

 the horns of a light peacock blue, and the lappet of the same colour, mottled with reddish- 

 yellow spots a quarter of an inch in diameter. There seems to be considerable variation 

 in the ornamentation of the lappet, for I have seen a bird with a flesh-coloured wattle 

 barred with nine transverse blue bars. In this specimen the fleshy horns were violet- 

 blue, and the lores very pale blue. 



The crop of the bird which I shot was filled with a comminuted mass of leaves, and 

 an almost equally macerated number of insects. These were unrecognizable, except for 

 two small spiders {Bowis sp. and Araneus beebei Petrunkevitch) which apparently had 

 just been swallowed. 



The country was most uninteresting at this place — steep mountain sides covered 

 with stunted rhododendrons and bamboo stubble, while the constantly overcast skies and 

 cold, bleak wind kept most birds and insects hidden. I could give but one more day to 

 this locality, and caught only a glimpse of another Tragopan, or perhaps it was the same 

 bird that I saw on the preceding day. The native Chinese and Kachins of this locality 

 did not seem to recognize the bird and had no name for it, other than the general one 

 for large bird. I have found that in all this country the knowledge of the people is 

 a thoroughly reliable guide as to the general occurrence of any species of pheasant, for so 

 thoroughly do the numerous lines of snares and traps carry out their intended purpose 

 that few species of these birds fail to fall victims, at one time or another. I believe that 

 in the winter time these Tragopans wander about much more than their Himalayan 

 representatives, and that at this season they gradually work farther to the south than 

 their normal summer breeding range. 



On my former trip, although, as I say, I saw no Tragopans on the Burmese side of 

 Sansi Gorge, yet on the Yunnan side, beyond Tabu-pum, I found, on December 8th, 

 1910, many feathers of this species in an old Kachin deadfall. From the abundance of 

 these, both wing and tail as well as contour feathers, I judged that some wild animal, 

 and not the Kachin, had benefited from the capture. The trap had not been reset, and 

 if the human owner had found the bird he would have taken it away before plucking it. 



CAPTIVITY 



Our lamentable lack of knowledge of the habits of the bird in its Asiatic haunts is 

 somewhat balanced by the fact that Temminck's Tragopan is perhaps the most well- 

 known in captivity of all its genus. This is doubtless due to the love of pets which is 

 so deeply implanted a trait in the Chinese, and which impels them successfully not only 

 to trap, but also to rear wild birds and animals, and consequently to sell a certain 

 number to foreigners. As I have elsewhere said, these people made use of the bird in 

 decorative work many years before it became known to Europeans, and soon after Mr. 



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