BLYTH'S TRAGOPAN 81 



always placed in trees, stumps or small bushes, and never on the ground, and that as a 

 rule, they are not more than six or seven feet from the ground and never more than 

 twenty feet. The favourite place is said to be amongst masses of creepers growing over 

 some dead tree, where the hen can sit hidden from the gaze of enemies of all kinds, but 

 sometimes the nest may be found in the fork of a leafless sapling, its great bulk visible 

 at a distance all round. My informants say that it lays two to five eggs, generally three 

 or four, and this agrees with what I have observed in my captive birds. 



"The male does not attain its full plumage for at least two years ; for a year it 

 closely resembles the female, but at its first moult acquires a certain amount of the adult 

 male plumage, sometimes more, sometimes less, but never the complete dress. This 

 may be attained at the second moult, but more often its full splendour is not put on until 

 the third moult. 



"The Nagas— especially the Angamis— are adepts at catching these Tragopans in 

 nooses, and on one occasion I had no less than thirty of these beautiful birds brought 

 in to me. A few were seen by the members of the Mishmi Expedition of 1900, but 

 none were procured. Colonel Chatterton of the 6th Goorkhas told me that the wild 

 birds were comparatively tame, and would feed and scratch about quite close to him, but 

 they were such skulkers when on the ground, and so clever at hiding, that though close 

 enough, it was very difficult to get a sight or shot at the birds." 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION 



Blyth's Tragopan inhabits north-eastern Assam, its range on the whole being rather 

 restricted, about the same in extent as Tragopan melanocephalus. We shall be allotting 

 to it a generous distributional estimate if we outline it as thus : northern boundary, the 

 Brahmapootra River ; southern, N. Lat. 23 ; E. Long. 96 , together with the Chinwin 

 River ; western, E. Long. 92 . It will be probably found that the bird extends slightly 

 further to the north-east, perhaps over another degree of longitude, to 97 E. It extends 

 through Manipur into the Lushai Hills and the mountains of northern Burma, and 

 along the Brahmapootra, at least as far as Debrughur. 



We may complete its area of life upon the earth by the third plane of space — the 

 species lives from one mile to about one and three-quarter miles above the sea. This 

 altitudinal distribution is somewhat more limited than that of the other species of 

 Tragopan, owing in part to the character of its environment. About nine thousand feet 

 is the highest to which any of the Naga hills attain, and Blyth's Tragopan reaches at 

 times the very summits. It has been recorded from just above five thousand feet, which 

 is probably an abnormally low altitude for the bird. 



HABITS IN GENERAL 



Less has been recorded of this bird than almost any other species of Tragopan, 

 and the few facts which we have, all show that it differs in no radical way from its 

 congeners. 



During the cold or dry season it descends to somewhat lower altitudes, influenced 

 not so much by climatic or temperature changes as by the drying up of the springs 

 high up in the mountains. Like all the Tragopans, it is seldom found far from flowing 



