BLACK-BREASTED KALEEGE 



Gennaeus horsfieldi (Gray) 



Names.— Specific : horsfieldi, named for Dr. Thomas Horsfield, an English naturalist, who carried on 

 scientific work in the East. English : Black-breasted, Purple or Horsfield's Kaleege. French : Faisan huppifere 

 de Horsfield; Houppifere pourpr^. German: Stahlblaues Fasanhuhn. Native: Dooreek (Dibrugarh) ; Durug, 

 Dirrik (Garo Hills) ; Motoora (Khasi, Sylhet) ; Muthura (Chittagong). 



Brief Description.— Male : Entire plumage black, glossed with purplish or steel-blue ; the feathers of 

 the lower back, rump and upper tail-coverts margined with white; the lower plumage only slightly pointed. 

 Female : Olive-brown ; tip of crest rufous ; chin and throat whitish ; wings and ventral plumage tipped with paler 

 brown ; central tail-feathers deep ferruginous ; in general more rufescent than the other Himalayan Kaleege. 



Range. — Eastern Bhutan, Assam and Upper Burma. 



THE BIRD IN ITS HAUNTS 



My first experience with this bird in Burma, east of •the Irrawaddy, was most 

 interesting. We were encamped near the small Shan village of Wau-hsaung, at the 

 foot of the mountains, which rose range beyond range eastward until they culminated 

 at the Chinese frontier, forty miles away. 



The banks of the Namli River were covered with dense undergrowth, through 

 which the great spreading horns of many water buffaloes had worn a maze of trails. 

 The clumps of bamboo had been browzed back until they had taken the form of huge 

 umbrellas. The rains had not yet ceased, and butterflies in scores of species and 

 individuals filled the forest and the narrow lanes. 



In a slight mist I walked a hundred yards into the undergrowth, bending low to 

 accommodate myself to the buffalo tunnel trails. Not far from the stream I found 

 a flock of small birds, several species of babblers, silver-eared mesias, yellow-backed 

 sunbirds and a single scarlet minivet, flashing like a flame against the dark leaves. 

 I shot a gorgeous sultan-bird, and was wrapping it up when there came to my ears, 

 like an electric shock, the inimitable bubbling murmur and cackle of a kaleege 

 pheasant. I sank down upon the mud, and found that the sound came from the steep, 

 thicket-covered bank leading down to a slimy backwater of the stream. 



The note of these birds is one of the few in nature which sounds distant when 

 uttered close by, and besides raising and cocking my gun I dared not move. I greatly 

 desired a specimen, to see if the birds from this comparatively low elevation possessed 

 any of the remarkable variability of those higher and farther east. 



Five minutes passed, and no further sound came from the birds. A family of 

 babblers passed, fortunately without discovering me; a big green barbet began his 

 rolling, croaking song overhead, and a pair of pygmy falcons, swallow-like in size 

 and colour, perched on a slanting bamboo and caught butterflies and grasshoppers. 

 A flurry of rain and a gust of wind sent down leaves and twigs, and filled the air 



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