CHEER PHEASANT 57 



I got a brace, and after that I never went home without one or two, and, strange to say, 

 my weekly, and sometimes bi-weekly, visits never had the effect of driving them away, 

 and what is more, in October seven years afterward, when I again visited the place, I 

 found my friends in their old locality, and got three brace then and there. 



" I found another nest with several eggs late in May, in a very similar situation, on 

 Nagtiber, at, I suppose, an elevation of about six thousand feet, and a third, containing 

 four eggs, which I took very early in May, a few miles from Juggutsook, in the upper 

 valley of the Beas. This, too, was similarly situated." 



My observations on the preference of individuals of this pheasant for some one 

 locality are, of course, not as valuable as if extended over a longer period of time. 

 The flock which I so unexpectedly flushed from the steep hillside did not visit 

 the same spot again within the succeeding two weeks. In another locality some 

 distance away later in the spring I found Cheer in pairs and beginning to nest, 

 and here they were, of course, exceedingly sedentary, and I could tell within a few dozen 

 yards just where I could find them. Fortunately there were no sportsmen about, nor, 

 judging from the birds, had there been any shooting hereabouts, and I had no difficulty 

 in watching the birds from well-selected points of observation. I spent many hours 

 with a pair of Cheer in full view, but sometimes after a whole afternoon of such 

 observation I would have no fact of interest to record. Much of the time I might 

 as well have watched a rooster and hen from a native barn-yard as far as unusual traits 

 were concerned. 



I regretted not being earlier on the ground in order to be able to watch the method 

 of courtship employed. In spite of the number of times that this species has bred 

 in captivity, no record has been kept of this interesting performance, and all that has 

 been written of it is a single paragraph by Finn : " This species is said not to show off, 

 but a vicious male in the Calcutta Zoo used to show off in the common pheasant's 

 attitude, aslant with spread tail, when trying to attack, and as the show position 

 so commonly seems to be the fighting one too, I expect the species does thus display 

 when courting." I saw this twice in wild birds, both times as a challenge or pose 

 of defiance, once against a crow and again when a brace of partridges approached 

 closely to the Cheer's nest. The attack, which was not actually made in either case, 

 was apparently intended to be by means of the spurs. The pheasant did not approach 

 the intruders directly, but with a curious sidling gait which took it in a curve first 

 to one side then to the other. Whichever side was presented was the one upon which 

 the display was made, and which differed in no essential particular, as far as I could 

 see through my field-glasses, from the courtship attitude of the common pheasant. 

 The back was flattened, the wings lowered and raised respectively, and the tail slanted 

 and spread widely and rather suddenly toward the end of the sidling walk. In fact 

 it was the sudden display of this conspicuously marked and coloured organ which 

 dismayed the objects of the Cheer's agitation, causing the crow to take to flight with 

 a low croak and the partridges to run to cover. The Cheer recovered his equanimity 

 at once, and after standing at attention for a few moments, began to wander off 

 down the ridge without a glance in the direction in which I knew his nest to be. 



Within a radius of a mile there were three pairs of Cheer, all, I am certain, 

 nesting, although I was able to find the nest of but one. By walking slowly past the 



VOL. HI 



