WHITE-TAILED WATTLED PHEASANT 153 



It is probable that the breeding season of these pheasants is rather elastic, and, 

 like most tropical birds, may in different localities extend over a good portion of the 

 year. Certain it is that in July in Sarawak I obtained birds of five or six months 

 of age, and during the same week saw a pair of adult males sparring with one another 

 and assiduously courting a female. This was the most important observation which 

 it w^as my good fortune to make concerning these pheasants in Borneo. 



Instead of sunshine, or at least a thin haze of clouds during the day, balanced by 

 a terrific downpour of driving rain throughout the night, the reverse one day took 

 place, and after I had made an early start and was several long miles from camp, a 

 sudden deluge descended upon me, and in a few minutes I was thoroughly drenched. 

 I was encumbered with nothing but my stereo glasses, as I had planned a day of pure 

 observation. Plodding on through the dripping undergrowth I came to where a great 

 tree had fallen — a tree whose life must have stretched back well beyond the time when 

 white men first set foot in Borneo. It had been strongly buttressed in all directions, 

 but a stroke of lightning had run down the trunk and splintered one of the great basal 

 supporting walls of living wood, and thus unsupported, the mighty mass had given 

 way. It had cut a wide swathe for itself, carrying down all the lesser growth in its 

 path. Under the shelter of two of its remaining upreared buttresses I found ample 

 protection, and here I remained for many hours watching the jungle life of a rainy day. 

 None but small folk came near, however, until well after midday, when the sun at last 

 broke through, although the saturated forest continued to rain down drops for many 

 a minute after the whole sky above had cleared. The first intimation I had that 

 pheasants were about was a sharp, nervous kak ! kak ! which came from the other 

 end of the mass of shattered foliage. By slow and painful manoeuvring I was able 

 to peer out unseen and to detect a male White-tail stalking slowly along at full height, 

 concentrating his attention upon a clump of maroon-leaved plants near by. Whatever 

 it was which had excited his interest or suspicion he was soon satisfied that all was 

 well, and he began feeding unconcernedly, scratching in the mould, or now and then 

 picking some insect from a leaf. For seven or eight minutes I watched him, and at 

 last dared to shift my glasses and rest them upon a ledge of bark, so that I was able 

 to see even the contraction and dilation of his pupil as he remained motionless for a 

 moment. The splash of falling drops, the twitter of small flycatchers, even the sudden, 

 wholly unexpected and startling notes of a barbet did not distract his attention a 

 moment. But always he was alert, always a momentary snatch at some morsel of 

 food was followed by an instant of concentrated listening, a quick, comprehensive glance 

 which took in all the adjacent shrubs which might shelter a foe. 



A change at last came over him ; without seeming alarmed, his attention became 

 focussed more and more in a particular direction. Straining all my senses, I could 

 neither hear nor see anything — but he knew of something which was as a fourth 

 dimension to my dulled faculties of perception. Finally the bird ceased all attempts 

 at feeding and stood immovable, never taking his eye from the edge of the jungle. 

 At that exact spot, after several minutes of further waiting, a pair of adult White-tails 

 emerged rather precipitately, the female first, as if the male had been pursuing her. On 

 the instant both caught sight of the waiting bird, and both uttered a low, startled kak ! 

 In a moment, however, the alarm passed and the female came diagonally across the 



VOL. II X 



