i86 A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 



These pheasants require considerable elevation, and seldom wander downward to 

 anywhere near the level of the plains. They delight in hillsides, and, like so many of 

 their family, prefer to trust to legs rather than wings for escape. At about four thousand 

 feet I found them in a diversified country, with pines rather abundant, alternating with 

 scrub bamboo, or at lower elevations with this latter type of vegetation growing to a 

 height of ten and twelve feet. In one locality I heard their rather harsh crow regularly 

 morning and evening, but the thick underbush with its carpet of dry leaves proved 

 an impassable barrier to close approach. Even when I could locate the pheasants 

 within reasonably narrow limits, and flank them by sending around one or two 

 natives on the farther side, I would catch only a fleeting glimpse of the birds as they 

 dashed by. 



The natives do not catch them in their long lines of dead-falls as frequently as 

 other pheasants, and say that it is because when their suspicions are aroused, instead 

 of dashing through the nearest opening, they frequently fly up to the lower branches of 

 a tree, and when their fear has passed and they descend, their flight is downhill, and 

 hence over instead of through the deadly bamboo fence. 



I found the birds feeding on seeds and berries, with only slight traces of animal 

 diet, chiefly earthworms, the tiny red type which is so abundant in many parts of 

 Burma. In country which was rather heavily forested the Burmese Pheasants seem 

 to feed on and off throughout the day, but on more open slopes they come out only in 

 early morning and near sundown. The birds were in pairs, or the males alone. I saw 

 no trios, nor indeed any hint of polygamy, though this is merely negative evidence. 

 The complexity of the wing-barring and other plumage characters are hardly noticeable 

 in the wild birds, the general effect being of a blue-headed, wine-coloured bird marked 

 with irregular white patches. The flight seems less rapid and more deliberate than that 

 of most pheasants, the bird choosing its way as its descends the hillside, and not hurling 

 itself heedlessly from summit to valley. 



The details of the daily life of these pheasants are hardly to be learned by a heavy- 

 footed human being without many months of patient watching. One cannot stalk them 

 in dry-leaved country, but must resort to umbrella tents or tree platforms, and the 

 difficulty with these methods is the uncertainty of the movements of these birds. They 

 are very unlike the kaleege in the methodicalness of their daily excursions, and while 

 six or eight pairs may pass over a ridge for a day or two on the way to water, for the 

 following week, without any apparent cause, not a bird will appear anywhere in the 

 vicinity. Thus luck enters as a considerable factor into the study of their life- 

 histories. 



J. P. Cook writes as follows of the Burmese Pheasant : '' I saw this beautiful bird 

 . . . several times, and generally in the open jungle on rocky hills. On one 

 occasion I put up five birds singly at intervals of about a minute or two. At one time 

 I thought I had found a nest, as a hen bird rose at my feet, but I hunted everywhere 

 without success. These pheasants do not seem to be quite so gregarious as G. lineatus, 

 nor so partial to the proximity of water. ... On one occasion I put up a pheasant out 

 of some wild raspberry bushes among long grass, on the fruit of which it was perhaps 

 feeding." 



