INTRODUCTION xxxv 



They launch out with a few rapid wing beats and then drop like meteors, at the 

 last moment breaking their impetus with widespread wings, or turning like a flash 

 to left or right with a mighty sweep of the tail-feathers. 



The gait of pheasants is usually slow and dignified. The neatness with which 

 a Golden or Silver will pick its way over rough ground is delightful to watch. An 

 Impeyan with its short legs and thickset body is probably the least attractive when 

 in motion. But the need for constant alertness and the frequent stops in order to 

 look and listen, give to almost all pheasants a carriage which is the embodiment 

 of grace and poise. 



DAILY ROUND OF LIFE 

 FOOD 



Looking back upon many intimate memories of pheasants busily feeding, and 

 upon scores of stomachs which I have carefully examined, one item of diet dominates 

 all others. Wherever termites or white ants occur, there they will be sought diligently 

 by pheasants. I have counted hundreds of these insects with additional quantities 

 of eggs and pupae in the crop of one bird, so the total consumption must be enormous. 

 This applies, of course, to pheasants in more tropical regions where termites abound. 

 In the north, as among the Himalayan ranges, the chosen food wherever available is 

 berries, such as those of the juniper, and the leaves of shrubby plants. Pheasants on 

 the whole, however, are decidedly omnivorous, and few edible objects, whether vegetable 

 or animal, come amiss to them. In the Himalayas, when certain flowers are in bloom, 

 the birds eat quantities of the petals. 



Every important order of insect is taken without hesitation, and it is remarkable 

 what spiny creatures are swallowed whole without apparent damage to the mucous 

 membrane. Pheasants have unusually keen vision, and among the less injured types 

 of insects I found a certain percentage of what might be considered protectively coloured 

 ones. Twice only were the wings of butterflies distinguishable, an orange and yellow 

 Ixias of medium size in one case, and again a hindwing of the giant black spotted 

 jungle butterfly Hestia. There is no doubt whatever in my mind that both protective 

 coloration and mimicry are very potent agencies in preserving members of this order 

 from destruction, the first factor operating when the insect is at rest, and the second 

 when the birds have learned their bitter lesson. Again and again while safely cached 

 and watching pheasants, I have seen conspicuously marked butterflies flap slowly 

 about within easy reach, observed but undisturbed by the birds. Three times I saw 

 half-hearted attempts made to seize butterflies ; once a short chase after a Kallima-like 

 individual as it snapped past, and the other two efforts, equally unsuccessful, made upon 

 more brilliant insects. 



In Garhwal, about mid-May, small moths were exceedingly abundant among the 

 underbrush, and I found several species of pheasants feeding largely upon them. I 

 recall taking thirty-eight from the crop of one Kaleege. 



Impeyans, Cheer and Kaleege are great diggers. The first-mentioned work 

 systematically in flocks, and like a little company of sappers and miners, excavate 

 deep holes in the turf of the high mountain meadows. As these hollows are extended 

 they coalesce, and soon a large area looks as if it had been deeply ploughed. While 



