172 The Lineated Pheasant of Burmah. 



clothes the foot and lower slopes of all the hill ranges in the 

 Tennasserim provinces of Burmah. The elevation above the 

 sea cannot be great, but the vegetable productions - of this 

 tract of country agree well with those found at an elevation of 

 about 2000 feet in the Himalayas. 



Their food consists chiefly of white ants, but they also pick 

 up the roots of plants, young shoots, and when ripe the 

 toungyar paddy, or hill-grown rice. In the dry season they 

 are found about the foot of the hills, wandering somewhat as 

 water becomes scarce, but in the rains return to the hill-sides, 

 from which I imagine they never at that time of year move 

 far. In fact, judging from the habits of their congeners in 

 the Himalayas, I should say they were inclined, unless com- 

 pelled to move by necessity, to keep very much to the same 

 spots on the particular hill-sides they most like. I have found 

 the Sikkim kallege invariably returns to the same bough every 

 night to roost, in spots where seldom disturbed. 



The Burmese bird seems to be more gregarious than the 

 Himalayan kalleges. My informant tells me he has seen as 

 many as twenty to twenty-five together, but I should think 

 that this was an unusual occurrence ; four or five — perhaps a 

 family of the previous year— would apparently be more usually 

 met with. 



Mr. Blyth, a well-known authority on such matters, men- 

 tions that some varieties of this bird are scarcely distinguish- 

 able from the Assam species of kallege, Galloiphasis Horsfieldi, 

 Gray, the probability being that where the two species meet in 

 Arracan, individuals of hybrids will be found to occur, in every 

 intermediate phase of plumage ; since we know that such are 

 common, where, as in Nepaul, the white-crested bird of Simla 

 meets the black-crested one of Sikkim. 



I was lucky enough, during a short stay at Th atone, a town 

 in the Martaban district, some forty miles to the north-west of 

 Moulmein, to see the way in which the Burmese capture the 

 species. 



A tame male bird, for which, if a good decoy, as large a 

 sum as twenty-five rupees is sometimes given, is taken and 

 pegged down to the ground in an open space, between three 

 or four clumps of bamboos, on the hill-side frequented by the 

 wild birds. The birdcatcher is led to the choice of a good 

 spot by the recent signs of fresh droppings, or lately upturned 

 soil. The tame bird has a range round his peg of a diameter 

 of about four feet only. In a circle round him, at the distance 

 of about six feet, a row of upright running nooses are fixed in 

 a continuous line, while further off, at the distance of some ten 

 or twelve yards, all likely openings between clumps of bam- 

 boos are guarded by other lines of nooses. Half an onion is 



