92 A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 



ground. Then the appendages are retracted by the same jerking movements of the 

 head, only to be spread and displayed again a moment later. 



I have seen a bird give its full performance eight times in an hour, and most of the 

 remaining time keep up the slow walk. Several times the bird may start on its final 

 display and be disturbed or for some reason stop midway. It may be merely a 

 coincidence, but I have never seen the hens pay any attention to the most persevering 

 suitor, except at the flash of the wattle, when they will almost always stop for a moment, 

 whether feeding or drinking. Indeed, the flashing of such a heliograph of azure and 

 scarlet could scarcely be ignored. Twice I have seen Tragopan cocks display to 

 ordinary hens. Once the hen was feeding with her back turned, and of course was 

 unaffected ; the second time the surprised bird leaped up with a single squawk of alarm 

 and craned its neck in all directions for several seconds after the Tragopan had walked 

 away. 



Although I have seen a cock Tragopan follow the female into cedar trees and from 

 branch to branch until she leaped to the ground again, I have never seen any arboreal 

 display. Ghigi has apparently been more fortunate, as he says : " mentre gli altri 

 fagiani si mantengono al suolo per fare la ruotd, i Tragopan inseguono le loro feminine 

 anche sugli alberi." 



Captive birds begin to lay early in April, and this and the first part of the following 

 month constitute their normal breeding season, June and July eggs being the unseason- 

 able results of earlier failures, either from sterility or from having been disturbed while 

 sitting. The question of the number of eggs is one of unusual interest. The single 

 ground nest of a wild bird thus far discovered contained six eggs, but in captivity the 

 number is extremely variable. A fact of considerable importance is that when the birds 

 are not provided with any means of arboreal nesting, or even a shelf on which to deposit 

 their eggs, they usually lay a greater number of eggs than when an elevated nesting box 

 or a nest such as that of a crow is available. I have had this happen in my own 

 experience no less than four times, and have records of three additional instances. 

 These are as follows — 



ELEVATED NESTING FACILITY — NOT PRESENT PRESENT 



Female No. I 4 eggs 2 eggs 



1 5 eggs 2 eggs 



2 4 eggs 1 egg 



3 6 eggs 2 eggs 



4 4 eggs 2 eggs 



4 3 eggs 2 eggs 



5 3 eggs 2 eggs 



In England Mr. St. Quintin records six sets of Temminck's Tragopan eggs 

 averaging two each, all laid in elevated situations, the exact numbers being 2, 2, 1, 3, 

 2, 2. In fourteen instances of the breeding of this species in the London Zoo we find 

 the general average to be about three, although in the undetailed list at hand the eggs 

 of two birds may in some cases have been lumped under one figure. A note from the 

 Amsterdam Zoo records that three female Temminck's Tragopans laid eighteen eggs, 

 from which eleven young birds (five males and six females) were hatched. In the case 

 of neither of these zoological garden records do we know whether the birds had the 

 opportunity of using an elevated nesting place. In a note on some of the first 



