I02 A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 



CAPTIVITY 



Cabot's Tragopans are to-day not uncommon in captivity ; perhaps, next to the 

 Temminck's, they are most frequently offered for sale by dealers. These birds have 

 been bred a number of times in captivity, but, like all the members of their genus, 

 their constitution is not strong, and there seems no hope of establishing the species 

 in captivity after it has been exterminated in its wild haunts. The first living male 

 bird reached the London Zoological Gardens in 1882, and a year later a hen was 

 obtained. Since that date a half-dozen or more have been exhibited. The length of 

 life of these individuals has averaged about two and a half years, while one bird 

 attained the record age of six years. The dozen old Cabot Tragopans we have had 

 in the New York Zoological Park have withstood our more severe extremes of climate 

 not as well as the London birds, and their terms of life have been considerably shorter. 



Mr. W. H. St. Quintin has given the following detailed account of the breeding 

 in captivity of Cabot's Tragopan : "As owing to their shy nature and to the dense 

 jungle inhabited by the tragopans or horned pheasants, little opportunity presents 

 itself of studying the ways of these birds while at liberty, or of investigating their 

 breeding habits, the following notes upon three species which I have at the present 

 time may be of some interest. In an enclosure of about five acres, including lawn, 

 shrubbery, and a small meadow, where the grass is left to grow until haymaking 

 time, well watered by a small shallow stream which runs through it, I have representa- 

 tives of the Satyr, Temminck's and Cabot's Tragopans, pinioned and confined by a 

 fox-proof fence of wire-netting. 



" I have been much struck by the arboreal habits of all three species, and 

 with the cleverness with which they walk along the boughs and thread their way 

 amongst the dense branches of the shrubs and trees within their enclosure. It is 

 necessary to be careful that no boughs extend to the fences, for they are always 

 ready to take the least chance of escape. My Cabot's Tragopans, in particular, seem 

 to spend a great part of their time in the trees, descending to feed, and afterwards 

 hurrying back again, so that, except when feeding or dusting, they may generally be 

 found perched, often in some shady yew, but, as a rule, not in the one in which 

 they pass the night. Last year (1900), in the spring, I had no adult male of this 

 species, but a hen bird laid two eggs in an old woodpigeon's nest, about ten 

 feet from the ground. This year there was a fine adult male running in the 

 enclosure, but the first clutch of three eggs laid in another pigeon's nest, which I 

 removed and put under a hen, proved unfertile, perhaps from having been touched 

 by frost. Early in May, she again laid in the same woodpigeon's nest, some 

 14 feet from the ground. This was in a yew, and, as in each of the previous 

 cases, the nest was slightly lined with a few green shoots of the tree. I transferred 

 these eggs to an incubator, substituting some guinea-fowl's eggs, which she took to 

 at once. Of the Tragopan's eggs one was unfertile, but two chicks were hatched 

 clothed with coarse, shaggy down of a chestnut colour, and with the primaries so 

 far developed that on the first day they could flutter up and perch on the side 

 of the yard of the foster-mother, to which I had transferred them. I had 

 considerable difficulty in getting the chicks to feed. At last some small green cater- 



