CHEER PHEASANT 



Catreus wallichii (Hardwicke) 



Names. — Generic : Catreus, Karpev'^, a peacock-like bird, the name used by Strabo. Specific : wallichii, for 

 Dr. Nathaniel Wallich, a Danish botanist, one time Superintendent of the Calcutta Botanical Gardens. English : 

 Cheer, Wallich's or Golden Pheasant. German : Wallich's Fasan. Native : Kahir, Chihir (Nepal) ; Cher or Chir 

 (Kumaon and Garhwal) ; Bunchil, Herril (Hills north of Mussooree) ; Chummun, Chaman (Chamba). 



Brief Description. — Male : Top of head, including long, hairy crest, dark brown ; chin, throat and breast 

 dingy white, back and under parts pale buff; lower back, rump and flanks, pale gold or rust colour, all the 

 plumage posterior to the neck and breast cross-barred with dark brown or black ; large wing and central tail- 

 feathers irregularly barred and mottled with dark brown and creamy white ; outer tail-feathers with distinct barring 

 of buff, and black, the latter often with chestnut centres. Female : Quite similar to the male, but with shorter 

 crest and tail. The feathers of the head are edged with buff, the upper back is pale chestnut barred with black, 

 and the posterior upper plumage dingy brown, mixed with black and buff; neck and breast black, buff-edged, 

 the posterior ventral plumage rufous chestnut, also edged with buff, and black-mottled ; the primaries are barred, 

 not mottled, and the tail-feathers are in general reddish brown, not buffy white, with wide mottled bars. 



Habitat. — West-central Himalayas, in Kumaon, Garhwal, and western Nepal. 



THE BIRD IN ITS HAUNTS 



Far up in the hinterland of native Garhwal one finds a land of contrasts. 

 Leaving camp in the deep valley and working up through the soft-needled forest of 

 deodars and spruces, I come suddenly, without warning or forest-thinning transition, 

 upon bare open ground. I pass over a low ridge, and instead of the dense, shady, 

 wooded slopes, I find myself upon a rocky ledge dropping down in jagged terraces, 

 and, on the other hand, rising steeply to where the stern profile of the summit is 

 silhouetted against the fleecy clouds. Here the slope is clothed with thick, dwarfed 

 rhododendrons, there with only a low dense mat of vegetation, or again with the 

 precipitous cliffs too steep to give foothold to aught but the red, scaling boulders 

 themselves. As I push forward, clinging to the shrubs and rocks to aid my unsteady, 

 shifting footing, I find the earth-mat of vegetation of great interest and beauty. 

 For yards I trample upon myriads of tiny, pale-blue forget-me-nots. On the shady 

 sides of the rocks begonias carpet the bare surface, their dainty pink blossoms 

 shading to deep red in the centre of the petals, and waving with every breath on 

 long, curved stalks. Flat against the rock lie the large, round, pubescent leaves, 

 showing rich maroon below where the edges are bent over. Flowers, a dozen 

 unnamed ones, are everywhere, striving to carpet the bare crags ; white edelweiss 

 shining like stars and visible from afar off. 



A sheltered abrupt angle offers a comfortable point of vantage for observation 

 above and below, and here I find the most remarkable plant of all : a dwarf, tree-like 

 growth, almost prostrate, growing downward over the face of the rocks. It bears myriads 

 of the tiniest of white flowers and small, shiny, oval leaves, both growing almost sessile 



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