56 A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 



of chestnut. Among other vegetable items found in their crops are small, tuber-like 

 roots and jungle yam. If these are small they are swallowed whole ; if of larger size 

 they are pecked to pieces, a habit which is very common among the argus pheasants. 

 Besides these the Lineated Kaleege eats jungle berries and seeds, fruits, flower petals, 

 fern fronds, young leaves, grass and bamboo sprouts. Nisbett says that he has never 

 found any grain in their crops, although he has known them to feed on the edges of fields 

 containing rice, maize and millet. As to this habit of approaching human habitations 

 or areas of cultivation, the habits of the Lineated seem to differ in various localities. 

 Some observers report it as among the shyest of birds, never being found within several 

 miles of any native hut or village, while elsewhere it seems to spend much of its time 

 feeding near fields. It is generally agreed that it does not object to unfrequented trails, 

 and a half-dozen sportsmen have spoken of finding the best shooting while walking 

 along these jungle paths. The insects taken most frequently are the non-flying, jungle- 

 inhabiting forms, such as caterpillars, grubs, and of course the ubiquitous termites or 

 white ants. 



The pheasants roost in small trees and on slanting bamboos, usually selecting 

 places which would be difficult of access to civet cats and arboreal carnivores. The 

 finding of regular roosting-places proved to be only a little more difficult than the 

 locating of birds' nests in general. The search was made possible by the conspicuous 

 sign, the good-sized piles of which often indicated the long-continued use of one 

 particular spot on a certain branch. In the vicinity, sometimes in the same tree, were 

 usually the roosts of other birds, two or three close together, or singly. In these 

 separate instances the number was too great for a single family, indicating that the 

 fragile flocking instinct which drew the birds together on their search for water, was 

 maintained throughout the hours of sleep. The roosts were almost always on rather 

 slender bamboos or tenuous branches, perhaps guarding against the unheralded approach 

 of a carnivore by the vibration of the thin branch. 



Personally I failed to observe any convoying of Lineated Pheasants by jay-thrushes 

 or other birds, but both Payne and Phillips have reported this to me as a common 

 association, a fact of no unusual moment when we remember the universality of its 

 occurrence among other species of the genus. As to enemies, I can present no direct 

 data, but it is safe to mention wild cats, civets and martens as in the front rank. 

 Their method of escape from danger varies with the character of the attack. A sudden 

 alarm by dog or man will send the birds up and away at once, flying above the trees if 

 out over a valley, or low and swiftly between the trunks in the jungle itself. When 

 prepared for the appearance of a dog, the pheasants fly at once into the nearest tree, and 

 sit there cackling softly, watching their disturber until he goes out of sight, or ready to 

 fly at once at the approach of his master. In any event the birds are exceedingly 

 difficult of observation by direct approach, but extremely easy if one conceals oneself in 

 the line of their advance down a hillside or nulla. 



HOME LIFE 



Although within the twenty-five hundred feet of elevation, and the ten degrees 

 of latitude of distribution the Lineated Kaleege encounters many changes of climate. 



