134 ' A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 



This crow, which is both a summons to a mate and a challenge to a rival, in early 

 spring is uttered chiefly at morning and evening. Later, in the full height of the 

 breeding season, there is scarcely an hour in the day when it cannot be heard. Later, 

 as the warmth of summer ends the period of courtship, the calls lessen in number 

 and vigour and again become restricted to the two nodes of dawn and dusk, before 

 dying out altogether. Even in mid-summer, however, an occasional crow may be 

 heard, perhaps a mere expression of exuberant spirits or a family call. Then in the 

 autumn the juvenile attempts ring out, vocal practice in preparation for the ensuing 

 normal challenge. 



To the ears of my friend, Prof. Ijima of Tokyo University, the crow of the Green 

 Pheasant sounds like CPwk-kehn I or Chok-chok-choken I while in the distance the crow 

 becomes softened and reduced to Ken-ken 1 To my Caucasian hearing, biased perhaps 

 by weeks of reiteration of the crow of the Ceylon junglefowl, the double note of the 

 Japanese Pheasant is more like the syllables George Joyce 1 or Geor-ker-joici ! "While 

 closely resembling the crow of the common pheasant, the challenge of this Japanese 

 form seems to me to be somewhat higher and shriller, perhaps more metallic. The crow 

 is often followed instantly by a second's whirring of wings, the brief whoof oi sound 

 being almost synchronous with the final syllable of the crow. 



The challenge may be uttered on the ground, or from a boulder or limb of a tree. 

 Once I saw a bird leap into flight and call, rather brokenly, while on the wing. The 

 occasional cackling sound of the more typical Phasiamis birds of the mainland is 

 seldom uttered by the Green Pheasant and only under the stimulus of sudden fear. 

 Ijima gives me the note of the female as chiyo-chiyo. I have heard no utterance from 

 this sex except a low content call. 



While the Yamadori or copper pheasants now and then produce the wing- 

 drumming, this is such a common habit with the Kiji or green birds that its imitation is one 

 of the most frequently used methods of enticing the pheasants within sight and gunshot. 

 To a short bamboo rod are fastened two wings of a cock pheasant, partly spread and 

 dried stiff. Then by swiftly revolving this instrument, with the rolling motion like that 

 of drilling a hole, the wings are made to revolve rapidly, either in the air or lightly 

 touching the arms of the operator. The resulting sound is sufficiently realistic to draw 

 any cock within hearing. Prof. Ijima tells me that many pot-hunters simply imitate 

 the call of the hen, to which the cocks respond invariably by wing-drumming, and not 

 by crowing, approaching the position of the supposed hen, and whirring as they come. 



The Kiji takes to wing easily and is capable of covering a considerable distance in 

 a single flight, but even where trees are available it usually chooses to alight on the 

 ground. The copper pheasants, on the contrary, will far more often perch and look 

 about them in an attempt to locate the danger. The most convincing proof of the 

 strength of flight of these pheasants is that given by F. J. Norman. This gentleman 

 tells of having shot dozens of the birds ''on the southern slopes of Niijima, a small 

 island lying to the north of Etajima, and with a good mile and a half of sea running 

 between. All the Kiji shot were cock birds, and though I have often searched the 

 island diligently, I never came across a hen pheasant on it. That, and the fact that 

 I always found the cocks in packs of five or six, or more, goes far to prove, I think, 

 they had flown over from Etajima." 



