62 A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 



very least detail — a single step forward, then a sharp turn beneath the deodar branches 

 and out on the opposite side. When she was well away I crept out and found six e^p-s 

 unusually heavily speckled for Cheer eggs. There was no hollow in the ground, but 

 a mere depression in the steep slope of grass stems, with two or three feathers of the 

 bird which had accidentally lodged there. I had to bend the grass and ferns down to 

 photograph the nest, and when I left I replaced them as best I could. This disturbance 

 did not affect the parents, and indeed a few days afterward a terrific hailstorm flattened 

 all the weak turf vegetation, together with my tent. When I left a week later she was 

 sitting as closely as ever on five eggs, as I had taken one. The embryos at this time 

 being of large size, the eggs would hatch in about five days more, the duration of 

 incubation being twenty-eight days. I trust no eye of eagle or mink found her out 

 before that time. 



The eggs are of a broad oval shape and somewhat glossy. The background varies 

 from pale stone-colour to cream. While some are entirely plain, quite unmarked, others 

 show a few reddish-brown dots at the larger end, and the extreme of marked eggs is 

 where, as in those which I photographed in the nest, the entire shell is sprinkled more 

 or less thickly with fine dots and specks of reddish brown, much as in the eggs of the 

 red-legged partridges Caccabis (now Alectoris). An even heavier-marked specimen is 

 figured by Mitchell. Thus we see that the eggs of the Cheer are entirely unlike those of 

 the genus Pkasianus, with which it has so frequently been associated ; and, on the other 

 hand, they have none of the warm caf^ au lait hue of the eggs of the impeyan, koklass 

 and kaleege, so that in this character the Cheer stands quite isolated. As Wilson has 

 remarked, the eggs are somewhat small for the size of the bird, but this is only in 

 proportion to the number laid. Compared with the impeyan pheasant, we find the Cheer 

 much the same-sized bird, measuring (exclusive of the tail) about 430 mm., as against the 

 very slightly larger impeyan's 440. The average size of Cheer eggs is 55 x 39 ; while 

 those of the impeyan measure 6^ x 45. The compensation lies in the fact that the Cheer 

 deposits from nine to fourteen eggs, while the impeyan lays only from two to five or 

 very rarely six. 



The Cheer will hardly last much longer except in the most inaccessible of their haunts. 

 In reserved forests there is a close season from the ist of March to the 15th of 

 September, but elsewhere it is shot at any season, as it is counted an excellent dish for 

 the table, and its habits of lying low and then trying to escape with a sudden terrific 

 burst of speed appeals as a challenge to the skill of every hunter Sahib. 



CAPTIVITY 



The Cheer pheasant has long been a familiar bird in Zoological Gardens and large 

 private collections, but, like the impeyan, it has completely failed to fulfil the great 

 hopes which early breeders entertained of establishing this species in foreign countries 

 in such numbers as the common pheasant. When the Cheer has been turned out with 

 other pheasants in England, Germany and elsewhere, the result has been invariably the 

 same. Unlike the other species which seek cover in woods and undergrowth, this 

 pheasant at once wanders afar in search of open grassland, and seems to lack all homing 

 instincts. It has, however, bred many times in captivity. The Cheer pheasant seems 



