i82 A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 



a willow hurdle, propped up by a stick over a shallow pit in which is placed corn or 

 other grain. A bit of an ear of corn is attached to a string, and when this is pecked 

 or pulled, the stick is released and the hurdle falls, imprisoning the bird underneath in 

 the shallow pit. 



We are told by Prjewalsky that the ''long and irregular intervals between their 

 call-notes, and their extreme shyness, make it difficult to shoot them, at all events in 

 the spring ; besides which, the uneven ground in which they are found, covered, on the 

 northern sides of the ravines, with dense bushes of rhododendron, and on the southern 

 slopes with prickly bushes of barberry, hawthorn and wild rose, added to the numerous 

 rocks and the fallen timber, make it most difficult sport. In such ground as this a dog 

 is of no use, even were it able to follow its master up the steeper places. You have only 

 your ears and eyes to assist you, and even these are not of much assistance, for the wary 

 bird sees or hears you long before you can come up to it ; it is a fast runner, and will 

 never rise from the ground unless surprised. You may hear the patter of its feet a few 

 paces off, as it disappears in some impenetrable thicket, before you have time to raise 

 your gun, far less to shoot ; and its tracks are as completely hidden as though it has 

 dived under water. Its tenacity of life, too, is marvellous. I have seen them fly after 

 receiving a whole charge of shot at fifty paces, and, if only winged, run into the bushes 

 and escape. If by some extraordinary luck you happen to see one close by, you fire 

 at once, as your only chance of a shot, and the charge blows the bird to pieces and 

 spoils it for preserving. The difficulties, indeed, are so great, the odds against you so 

 numerous, that nothing but the rarity of the bird induces you to try such thankless 

 sport. 



" My companion and I often went in pursuit of these pheasants, repairing to the 

 woods long before daybreak, but only succeeded in obtaining two specimens ; and two 

 of the Tangutan sportsmen, whom I hired for that purpose, climbed the mountains 

 day after day, but only succeeded in bringing home a couple by surprising them on 

 their nests. 



''The great difficulty lies in discovering the whereabouts of the bird, owing to the 

 long, irregular intervals between its cries, whilst it is sometimes absolutely silent even 

 on a fine bright morning. It is remarkable, too, how quietly, for so large a bird, it 

 rises off the ground, when in extreme terror at your sudden appearance, and takes 

 wing without your having heard it. It is slow in its flight like the capercailzie, and 

 will not fly far." 



The Blue Eared-pheasant has not, as far as I know, been brought alive to the 

 Zoological Gardens of Europe. The eggs, as described from specimens collected in 

 China, are five to seven in number, smooth, pale olive-grey in colour, unspotted. Two 

 which I examined in a collection in India showed less of a bluish, more of a greenish 

 tinge than the eggs of the brown eared-pheasant. Nehrkorn describes an egg as 

 " Hellgrau wie die Eier von Anas boschas;' and gives the measurements as 60 X44 mm. 

 These are considerably greater than the dimensions of two eggs laid by a bird kept by 

 a Chinaman in captivity, which are only 44 x 30-5 and 43 x 30 mm. respectively. 



Thus, on the whole, we see that the habits of the Blue Eared-pheasant difl"er in 

 no essential particular from those of the Brown species, and with the reservation of the 



