74 A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 



remarkably well concealed. If I had not been close to the ground, and slightly down 

 along the slope, I should never have discovered it. It was invisible when at last I 

 stood up and looked toward it. But most used nests are much more in view. 

 Constant approach of the parent birds breaks or wears away the adjacent leaves and 

 twigs, and by the time the brood of the rightful owners is ready to leave, the nest is 

 far from well concealed. Again, one hardly knows what nests could serve. In this 

 instance the nest was doubtfully corvine, but such fearless, pugnacious birds usually 

 build in plain view, a site which would give a hen Tragopan but short shrift. The 

 greatest danger attendant on arboreal nesting would be the Himalayan langur monkeys, 

 and the betrayal to eagles by inquisitive crows and jays. That the monkeys are at 

 times a very real danger to pheasant nests I shall show in the case of the impeyan. 



Be this as it may, it is certain that the Western Tragopan occasionally does utilize 

 the tree nest of some other species of bird ; and, after all, it is quite idle for a mere 

 ornithologist to argue pro and con anent the advisability of tree or ground nesting! 

 The keen eyes of my hen Tragopan had ferreted out an ideal nesting spot, and had it 

 not been that her secret was one of the reasons for my having travelled so many 

 thousand miles to her home, I should assuredly have left her undisturbed, with the full 

 knowledge that her age-old instincts were far better guides for her safety and that of 

 her brood than any logic of man — however carefully formulated— could ever be. 



DETAILED DESCRIPTION 



Adult Male. — Lores, forehead and entire crown glossy black, the feathers of 

 the occiput changing suddenly to Indian red and forming a long, backward pointing 

 crest. Ear-coverts and a narrow band entirely surrounding the gular lappet black. 

 Nape, hind and side neck deep Indian red. Face, chin and throat lappet almost bare 

 of feathers. 



On the lower neck the red ends abruptly, giving place to an entirely different 

 pattern and colouring, characteristic of the whole upper plumage. The mantle, wing- 

 coverts, back and rump are uniform, having a background of pale greyish buff, thickly 

 mottled and irregularly barred with black, while at the tip of each feather is a good- 

 sized, round, black area, with a very sharply outlined spot of pure white in the centre. 

 The only exception is a V-shaped patch of deep Indian red just below the bend of the 

 wing, one arm of which extends obliquely across the wing, and the other along the 

 anterior border. 



Only on the scapulars, longer wing-coverts and tertiaries is there distinct evidence 

 of the lateral olive ocelli, which form so prominent a character of satyra. These ocelli 

 are often strongly tinged with ochraceous. The secondaries are dull brownish-black, 

 barred with pale greyish-buff, which assumes a warmer buffy tone on the primaries. 

 On the upper tail-coverts, the white ocellus expands to many times its usual size, and is 

 bordered by a wide shaded area of rusty or rufous. The tail-feathers are black at the 

 tips, mottled and banded basally with greyish-buff. 



On the anterior lower throat and upper breast is a most remarkable patch of pale, 

 glistening, orange-yellow feathers, deepest at the tips and paling to a lemon-white. The 

 feathers composing this patch are extremely specialized, harsh to the touch, and stiff and 



