xii LIST OF PHOTOGRAVURES 



Photogravure 42. NEST AND EGGS OF THE CHEER PHEASANT 



Photographs by William Beebe. Facing page 62 



High up among the tumbled mountains a sh'ght depression is scratched among the ferns 

 and spruce needles. It is usually close to the trunk of a tree, or beneath the protecting fronds 

 of a deodar branch, and here the eggs are laid. The little dull-coloured hen sits closely, for 

 the eyes of crows and monkeys are sharp and her plumage is much less conspicuous against 

 the grass than the eggs. 



Photogravure 43. ORIGINAL HOME OF THE ENGLISH PHEASANT, LOWER 



VALLEY OF THE SAFED RUD, BETWEEN THE CASPIAN 

 AND THE BLACK SEAS Facing page ;6 



Upper Photograph by General A, C. Bailward. 



This particular spot is inhabited by the Talisch Caucasian Pheasant, Phasianus colchicus 

 talischensis Lorenz, one of the three closely related forms living in the region between these 

 two great inland seas. It was from this area that the Romans brought the first birds to Britain. 

 The land is not fertile and is broken up by rivers, small during the seasons of dryness, but 

 swelling into great torrents in the rains. The people are little changed from the times of old 

 when the waves of emigrants swept first in one direction, then in another, and left this hinter- 

 land of Asia, the northernmost edge of Persia, wild and semi-civilized. 



Here the pheasants still lay their eggs and rear their broods, just as their transported 

 fellows do in the coverts of England and America. 



Photogravure 44. HOME OF THE PERSIAN PHEASANT IN SOUTHERN 



TRANSCASPIA Fadngpage 86 



Photographs by Dwight Huntington. 



These birds live in vast plains either covered with reeds, or else bare, with the appearance 

 of steppes, where also are found troops of wild boars, hyaenas and great bustards. They feed 

 on the juniper berries, and many fly at night for safety to the islands in the sluggish rivers to 

 avoid their enemies, the cheetahs and leopards. 



HOME OF THE PRINCE OF WALES'S PHEASANT, SOUTH TURKESTAN 



The Murghab River is muddy and turgid, of the colour of poor cofiee, flowing in a channel 

 of brown clay, between high banks which are ever crumbling. In the spring the river becomes 

 a terrible torrent, tearing through the desert with irresistible force, forcing all living creatures 

 far from their normal haunts along its banks. Here this pheasant makes its home. 



Photogravure 45. HOME OF THE MONGOLIAN PHEASANT, FEEDING- 

 GROUND IN THE TIAN SHAN MOUNTAINS, BREEDING 

 HAUNTS IN CHINESE TURKESTAN . . Fadngpage 98 



Photographs by Dwight Huntington. 



These hardy Ring-necks are found on tamarisk-covered sand dunes, where the birds can 

 never even know what a tree is, or they inhabit half-floating reedy islands, or they haunt culti- 

 vated areas, while on the slopes of the mountains they range upward as high as four thousand 

 feet, living, feeding and nesting among the conifers and poplar forests. 



In the summer and autumn they wander far, but in winter the birds are compelled to search 

 for the yellow berries of the thorn scrub, and are strictly confined to the areas where this 

 edible grows. 



