WHITE EARED-PHEASANT 189 



feet high, where numbers of these White Pheasants were to be seen running about in 

 every direction in this uninhabited country. Two were shot. Gazelles and stags were 

 abundant. Again on the 4th of February, at Lanipa, we read : " After getting in, as 

 three hours of daylight remained, we went to look for pheasants in jungle composed 

 principally of a sort of holly oak with a few fine trees scattered about. We found three 

 sorts : Shagga (Crossoptilon Hbetanum), Tsiri (Ithaginis geoffroyi), and Koonon (Tetra- 

 ophasis szechenyii), all three sitting on trees." Two days later, near Noru Tonga, Bower 

 made '' a rather long march up a valley all the way, passing a high watch-tower where, 

 according to orders, two men are always posted to keep a look-out for enemies. . . . On 

 the road we saw some Shagga at nine thousand feet, the lowest point at which we had 

 seen them." 



Elsewhere, the author adds, the Shaggas " go about in flocks of about thirty, and 

 their colour and size make them extremely conspicuous on a hillside. Of all game-birds 

 I have ever met, they are the hardest to kill. The way we knocked feathers out of them 

 without bringing them to book was very trying, more especially as our stock of 

 cartridges was not large. They were most plentiful in the neighbourhood of Rinchi." 



Abbd David, many years before, in his Oiseaux de la Chine, writes as follows 

 concerning the White Eared-pheasant in China proper: "The White Crossoptilon is 

 found in China only in several wooded localities on the mountains of the country of the 

 Mantzes, for example at Yaotchy and at Tatsienlu, where its existence is protected by 

 the superstitions of the natives. It is a bird gentle and sociable, which likes to live in 

 company with its kind, especially at the time of the rearing of the young, and it is not 

 easily separated from those which it had produced. Its food consists of leaves, roots, 

 grains, and insects. Fortunately for the conservation of the species, the flesh of this 

 fowl has a very inferior flavour ; therefore the hunters prefer as game those pheasants 

 which are not only more widely spread but more easy to catch. 



" The females, and the young males, before their first moult, may be distinguished 

 by their less pure colours and smaller ear-plumes." 



During a journey made in 1899 through western Szechuan, Captain H. R. Davies 

 made the following notes in regard to the White Eared-pheasants : These " large white 

 birds with dark-coloured tails were common in the same sort of localities as the blood 

 pheasants." This would mean at elevations never below eleven thousand feet, keeping 

 just below the snow line, which, of course, varies at different seasons of the year. They 

 are confined to the forest, and seem never to be met with on the bare tops of the ranges. 

 The White Eared-pheasants " are found in large coveys, and run very fast, scarcely ever 

 flying, while they are so wary that, although I saw a great many, I could never get near 

 enough for a shot. Their call is a very loud, harsh crow, which can be heard for a mile 

 or two. They keep to high altitudes, and are often found in the snow." 



The late Mr. Tappey writes to me that the White Eared-pheasant is found in flocks, 

 and while feeding there is usually one cock on the lookout, often perched on some tallish 

 spruce or on a rock. When startled, their call is similar to the gobbling of a turkey- 

 At such a time all move rapidly uphill or take to flight. 



They feed on lily bulbs and flowers, stems and bulbs of the wild onion, which gives 

 to their flesh a strong odour and taste of onion. Eared-pheasants roost in large spruce 

 trees, usually several birds together. They moult in August. Occasionally their skins 



