HIMALAYAN IMPEYAN PHEASANT 117 



allow of an extensive view through the woods," Wilson writes that he has ''often 

 stood still till twenty or thirty have got up and alighted in the surrounding trees." 



In the spring, before the flights of early migrants begin to swing northward through 

 the passes toward Tibet and Siberia, the Impeyans begin leisurely to ascend. They 

 have only a foot of ground to cover for every mile of the other feathered migrants, but 

 their goal is the same — the cool zone where they were born and where their parents' 

 parents had nested before them. As a rule, the Impeyans carry on their migrations on 

 the southern slopes, but in many of the hanging valleys birds from two wholly separate 

 ridges intermingle in winter. As courtship does not take place at the lower elevations 

 there is probably little physical intermingling, however, and, judging from all analogous 

 cases, the birds from each separate slope or ridge return unerringly to their natal forest 

 or heath, the young — or what are left of them — to some adjacent area. 



As spring advances, all the Impeyans become wilder, and every hint of flock spirit 

 vanishes. At this season, when one bird is flushed or alarmed by man or beast, the 

 alarm does not spread, as earlier in the season, but each bird shows a tendency to delay 

 its retreat until individually menaced. The first flight is almost invariably to a tree, 

 especially if the assailant be a dog, but when again disturbed the bird puts a good 

 distance between himself and the danger, settling this time upon the ground. 



The season of the year is said to be all important in influencing the tameness or 

 wariness of Impeyans. "In spring, when the snow has melted in almost every part of 

 the forest, and they have little difficulty in procuring an abundance of food, they appear 

 careless about being driven from any particular spot, and often fly a long way ; but 

 in winter, when a sufficiency of food is not easily obtained, they cling to particular 

 localities, seem more intent on satisfying their hunger, and do not so much heed the 

 appearance of man." The females, probably because their modest garb renders them 

 more immune against attack both from sharp-sighted carnivora and the millinery 

 hunter, seem always tamer than the cocks. 



There seems little doubt but that the Impeyan has proved an unusually successful 

 competitor in the life struggle which, century upon century, has been waged among the 

 great heights and depths of the Himalayas. Although it is difficult to believe the 

 statement of a professional millinery hunter that " hundreds may be put up in a day's 

 walk," yet formerly the birds were unquestionably abundant in many parts of these 

 great mountains. Especially was this the case in winter when the spreading downward 

 of snow and frost concentrated the numbers of Impeyans at lower elevations. I shall 

 elsewhere take up more particularly the relation of these pheasants and mankind, and 

 shall here remark only that from end to end of the Himalayas, from the Simla or 

 Kashmir sportsman to the hunter who makes his way northward from Darjeeling, one 

 hears to-day only expressions of regret at the decimated numbers of these wonderful 

 birds ; birds which have wholly refuted all early hopes of semi-domestication. 



The Impeyan is as inferior to the tragopan in its vocal utterances as in the dermal 

 elaboration of its courtship display. The common call note is a shrill, loud whistle, 

 with but little cheeriness. The only love call at the height of the courtship season 

 which I have heard is this small call, louder and less lacking in the mournful, plaintive 

 quality which characterizes it at other times. This brighter tone is due, however, solely 

 to the greater vim put into the sound ; the call in the main is the same. I have never 



