xxxviii INTRODUCTION 



the entire flock set up such a shrieking, cachinnatory chorus that the pheasants 

 departed at once, and every jungle creature within earshot was put on guard. All 

 pheasants recognize and act upon the sudden alarm note of a bird, no matter what the 

 species. This is a language which the whole jungle understands. But this intimacy 

 between smaller alert birds with vocabularies as extensive and powerful as they are 

 significant, in some localities makes it almost impossible to approach or observe 

 pheasants, which by themselves are not especially wary. The Tragopans, because of 

 their semi-arboreal habits, need such aid less than pheasants of other groups. Besides 

 the Kaleege and Silver Pheasants, the Koklass and Junglefowl benefit from the 

 watchfulness of babblers, and I have seen Malayan Peacock Pheasants warned by 

 attendant laughing thrushes. In Burma, the black-gorgeted and the black-throated 

 thrushes are the species which are constantly associated with the Kaleege. These 

 pheasants seem to be particularly fortunate in this matter of wild friendships, for they 

 are often seen with the small musk deer, the two creatures keeping together for hours 

 at a time. Eared-Pheasants in the north, and the White-tailed Pheasants in Borneo, 

 have also found these deer good companions. In this instance it is unquestionably a 

 case of sense reciprocation. Both contribute equally in the matter of acute hearing, but 

 the pheasants supply by far the keener eyesight, while to the deer every scent is 

 significant of safety or danger. Assailants, invisible to the birds, must often be foiled 

 by the stamping signal of the tiny deer, which sends both in headlong flight. 



At the present day, man is the pheasants' worst enemy, and through no sense of 

 retribution, for these birds do no appreciable damage to crops in any part of the East. 

 But this danger is a matter of the last few years, and although this must inevitably be 

 the ultimate factor of extermination, it has had nothing to do with their evolution or 

 past life. In my searches for the birds month after month, I came, now and then, upon 

 direct evidences of tragedy, and in the monographs of the various species I have given 

 all the knowledge at my command on this subject. In the more northern parts of 

 their range, the leopards, lynx, jungle cats, foxes, wild dogs, martens and weasels take 

 heavy toll, the martens being perhaps the most dreaded. The larger owls, hawk-eagles 

 and the golden eagle are the principal foes of the air. I have known one of the latter 

 birds to strike down .a cock Impeyan and a panda or cat-bear in quick succession. 

 In the Himalayas the chief enemies of pheasant eggs are bears, monkeys, crows and 

 snakes. As if this were not enough, the elements contribute their share of danger, 

 and an occasional downpour of great hailstones smashes every unprotected shell, and 

 is often severe enough to kill the sitting hen. In the tropics there is hardly a carnivore 

 or bird-of-prey of any size which does not contribute to the tragedies of the pheasants. 

 Civet cats, jungle hawks and serpents, doubtless stand at the head of the list of 

 tropical enemies. 



PROTECTIVE COLOURING 



In the matter of the struggle for success in life the pheasants are heavily handi- 

 capped. On the one hand, they are birds of large size, edible to all flesh-eating 

 creatures, weak-winged, practically devoid of the sense of smell, and often spending 

 their lives where dense underbrush allows an enemy to lie in wait unperceived. Their 

 assets are mainly two, sight and hearing. These are developed to the highest degree 



