126 A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 



sight nor sound had I revealed my approach, but solace my pride as I might, the fact 

 remained that the birds had left. From observations on captive birds I am inclined to 

 think that the courtship is a rather more rapid affair than with many other pheasants. 

 A cock will walk up to a hen, show off for a few seconds, and walk away again 

 unconcernedly, in strong contrast to the ardour of a golden pheasant, who seems to 

 take little time from his circlings and posing even to feed. Very much the same thing 

 has been observed in a wild bird by Major Rodon, who, when shooting in Chamba 

 one early April morning, noticed, as he was seated behind a tree, a pair of Impeyan 

 Pheasants feeding a short distance away, on a flat terrace on the open hillside. He 

 says : " they were so close that I was able to see their every movement distinctly. After 

 being busily engaged some time in their usual digging operations, the hen bird stopped 

 work and uttered her call note several times, upon which the cock, who was at the time 

 some little distance away, ran up to her with his wings raised high above the back, tail 

 spread, and neck and body feathers distended. He then moved quickly to and fro for a 

 few seconds in front of the hen, who stood quietly looking on at his performance ; he 

 then abruptly closed his wings and tail, turned about and ran back to his feeding 

 ground, while the hen went on with her breakfast. As the early morning sun was 

 shining on the birds, the sudden appearance of the cock in the above performance 

 was most splendid to look upon ; the back and chestnut-coloured tail, spread like a fan 

 behind, shone out most gorgeously. But it is not for the mere pleasure given by the 

 exhibition that I write this note, but to direct attention to the unusual behaviour showed 

 by the hen. As, I believe, in all courting displays among birds of fine-coloured plumage, 

 the hen takes a most passive part, and does not in any way call the performance up ; 

 but the male birds themselves of their own accord go through the ceremony of showing 

 off their fine feathers in front of their lady-loves. But in this case the lady-love, by her 

 calls, appeared to have directly invited or encouraged the display, as the lover was 

 digging out his breakfast until he heard the call sounded." The fact that the two birds 

 were alone and apparently mated seems to me the principal point of interest, showing 

 an extension of the courtship phenomenon or instinct beyond its logical season. Its 

 incomplete performance doubtless reflected a dying-out of the wooing instinct. 



Although I have several times watched a captive cock Impeyan displaying before 

 the hen, I have never seen so elaborate a performance as has been recorded of a bird 

 in England. In this case he " lowered both wings, stiffened the copper-red feathers on 

 his neck to look like a small ruff, drew his bill under his chin so as to display his crest 

 better, and then crept slowly round a grassy mound to look if the hen was observing 

 him. 



" Finding this to be the case, he crouched low on the ground, dropped his wings 

 even further, and spread out his tail into a fan shape as far as it would go — which was a 

 long way. He then suddenly raised his tail upwards and bristled up all his feathers, 

 the head being lowered near the ground. He next lowered his tail, still keeping it 

 spread out fan-shape, and commenced such a loud rattling and rustling of all his feathers 

 (accompanied by a plaintive whistling) that I could scarcely believe it was the bird 

 making so much noise. He then closed his feathers, except the tail (which he still 

 spread to its utmost extent), and gave several froglike leaps forward in the direction of 

 the hen, stopped short, jerked himself suddenly right-about-face, gave a flourish of his 



