LIST OF PHOTOGRAVURES xv 



Photogravure 56. HOME OF IJIMA'S COPPER PHEASANT IN SOUTHERN 



JAPAN . . . . . . . . , , Facing page 170 



Photographs by William Beebe, 



The most beautiful spots beloved by Ijima's white-backed Copper Pheasant are carefully 

 preserved because of regard for some ancestral shade whose body lies buried near by. Such 

 a place has a carpet of ferns, bracken and soft bamboo grass, and a mid-growth of graceful 

 camellias — the tsubaki of the Japanese — whose myriad scarlet bell flowers sway in the wind, 

 their clapper stamens muffled with knobs of yellow pollen. High above all rises the great, 

 evergreen expanse of camphor trees, in grace and size rivalling any grove of English oaks. A 

 single leaf plucked from the mighty branches perfumes the whole glade with the aromatic 

 camphor incense. 



The upper photograph shows open Copper Pheasant country near the southern coast of 

 Kiusiu, facing the great island volcano of Sakuragima. The lower photograph is a grove of 

 camphor trees where several pairs of pheasants lived and roosted. 



Photogravure 57. NEST AND EGGS OF U^MA'S COPPER PHEASANT 



Photographs by William Beebe. Facing page 174 



This nest of five eggs was a late one, and possibly the second attempt of a hen whose 

 earlier effort had come to naught through a marauding fox or raven. The nest was a mere 

 depression near the base of a tall tree, and protected only by a few stalks of grass. The hen 

 was not seen, although the eggs were warm when I first discovered them. She had slipped off 

 and away while I was still at a distance. 



Photogravure 58. HOME OF THE BURMESE BARRED-BACKED PHEASANT 



Photographs by William Beebe. Facing page 186 



My first view of this bird came when I was waiting for some silver kaleege pheasants to 

 appear at their usual drinking place on the banks of a rushing stream. I was rather hopeless 

 of any result, for I had been discovered and was being abused by a pair of squirrels and a 

 mob of laughing thrushes, when a new voice was added to the general hubbub — a series of 

 rapidly uttered chucks of alarm and suspicion from a low tree. A moment later, with a 

 loud beating of wings, a Burmese Barred-back swung into view. It alighted on a stump, gave 

 one glance in my direction, uttered a single loud chack ! and dashed off at full speed. 



The home of these birds consists principally of dense mountain-side forests, cut by 

 tumbling brooks and streams. 



Photogravure 59. HAUNTS OF ELLIOT'S PHEASANT . . . Facingpage 192 



Photographs by William Beebe. 



High up on the semi-bare mountain sides, most elaborate and ancient Chinese graves are 

 occasionally seen, beautifully carven, yet fitting harmoniously into their setting. One evening 

 I saw a cock Elliot Pheasant make his way to the top stone of a graceful grave balustrade. 

 After preening his plumage in the failing light, the bird liopped down and settled for the 

 night between two carven blocks. Curiously enough, he roosted head inward, tail hanging 

 down outside facing the slope, and, to my way of thinking, this was a great mistake, for any 

 marten or other marauder could cut off the bird's only way of escape. However, the pheasant 

 doubtless had his own good reasons for his reversed position. As I slipped away, the grave 

 was beginning to be silvered by the moon, and I left the living bird and the carven phoenix 

 side by side. 



Photogravure 60. MOUNT ARIZAN : HOME OF THE MIKADO PHEASANT. 



Photograph by W. R. Price. Facing page 198 



The Mikado Pheasant lives among the wild fastnesses of Mount Arizan, Formosa. Dense 

 forests clothe the steep slopes to the very summit, clinging to sheer cliffs, overhanging breathless 

 gorges. 



Here, from a mile and a half to two miles above the sea, in gloomy cypress jungles and among 

 bamboo and rhododendron thickets, these magnificent velvety-black birds feed, and call, and 

 mate, and rear their chicks. Where man can only cling, and creep with snail-like pace, the intimate 

 life and habits of these pheasants must long remain a mystery. 



