46 GAME BIRDS OF' INDIA. 



the scattered jungle at the borders of the dense forest, thickets near 

 old deserted patches of cultivation, old cowsheds and the like, 

 coppices near the villages and roads, and in fact forest and jungle of 

 every kind, except the distant and remoter woods in which it is sel- 

 dom found. The presence of man, or some trace that he has once 

 been a dweller in the spot, seems as it were, necessary to its existence. 



" The Kalleege is not very gregarious ; three or four are often 

 found together, and ten or a dozen may sometimes be put out of 

 one small coppice, but they seem in a great measure independent 

 of each other, and much like our English Pheasants. When disturb- 

 ed, if feeding or on the move, they generally run, and do not 

 often get up unless surprised suddenly and closely, or forced by 

 dogs, and lie rather close in thick cover. They are never very shy, 

 and where not unceasingly annoyed by sportsmen or shikarees, are 

 as tame as any sportsman could wish. In walking up a ravine or 

 hill side, if put up by dogs, a little distance above, they will often 

 fly into the trees close above his head, and two or three allow them- 

 selves to be quietly knocked over in succession. When flushed 

 from any place where they have sheltered, whether on the ground 

 or aloft, they fly off to some distant cover, and alight on the ground 

 in preference to the trees. Their call is a loud whistling chuckle 

 or chirrup ; it may occasionally be heard from the midst of some 

 thicket or coppice at any hour of the day, but is not of very fre- 

 quent occurrence. It is generally uttered when the bird rises, and 

 if it flies into a tree near, often continued some time. When flushed 

 by a cat or a small animal, this chuckling is always loud and 

 earnest. 



"The Kalleege is very pugnacious, and the males have frequent 

 battles. On one occasion I had shot a male which lay fluttering 

 on the ground in its death struggles, when another rushed out of 

 the jungle and attacked it with the greatest fury, though I Avas 

 standing reloading the gun close by. The male often makes a 

 singular drumming noise with its wings, not unlike the sound 

 produced by shaking in the air a stiff piece of cloth. It is heard 

 only in the pairing season, but whether to attract the attention of 

 the females or in defiance of his fellows, I cannot say, as I have 



