132 A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 



As to the more intimate wild home life of the Impeyan, we can only piece together 

 the fragments of observation which are all we have. In captivity we know that 

 occasionally the cock will assist materially with the care of the young birds. I know, 

 however, of no instance of his approaching the nest or eggs during incubation. 

 Doubtless, in a wild state, swift destruction would follow in the wake of his conspicuous 

 figure did he haunt the vicinity of his sitting mate. In spite of several vague assertions 

 and some little apparent evidence, I believe that the Impeyan is but seldom polygamous, 

 and that the birds usually pair off soon after the period of courtship. 



We read that " it may be questioned whether they do pair or not in places where 

 they are at all numerous ; if they do, it would appear that the union is dissolved as soon 

 as the female begins to sit, for the male seems to pay no attention whatever to her 

 whilst sitting, or to the young brood when hatched, and is seldom found with them." 

 The final rather ambiguous statement is cleared up, and the cock is freed from the 

 slander in the first line, by the fact that in many, and probably most cases, he does 

 rejoin his family when their safety from the dangers of nest and early chickhood is 

 assured. In summer and early fall the parents and young live and roost together, 

 remaining more in the shade of the forests than on the open hillsides. 



The vicissitudes of chickhood are shown by the average number of two young 

 birds seen with the mother in the autumn and winter, often only a single one 

 remaining out of the average of five or six which must have been hatched a few 

 months before. 



However numerous their enemies, it is difficult to believe that the lammergeier is 

 to be included among them. It has been stated that the bearded vulture destroys 

 the adult birds, but this vulture would hardly be found within the forest itself, 

 and we have no first-hand observation of its attacking pheasants, either old or 

 young. 



We know that the Impeyan cocks are seen again and again with their partly grown 

 broods, but it is only in captivity that we can hope to gain such insight into their 

 admirable family qualities as is recorded of a pair of birds which reared their young 

 year after year in an enclosure some thirty yards square. The young birds began to 

 perch when three or four weeks old, and it was a charming sight to see them settling 

 down for the night, perched between the parents, both of which extended one wing over 

 the nearest chick, for the cock bird took his full share of night duty. One has only to 

 close one's eyes and think of the forests of mighty deodars and firs, the air of the cool 

 Kashmir summer night, heavy with spicy resinous odours, to feel a mighty affection 

 for similar little families perched asleep among the branches — all too few left alive 

 to-day. 



Here we have a rather complex yearly cycle of life ; the two sexes in loose flocks 

 ascending in spring to their breeding haunts ; pairing and a brief association ; the 

 segregation of the males in flocks during incubation, and in the summer a reuniting 

 of the families, the attraction this time being apparently pure family affection — a fact 

 which, if true, goes far to compensate for the dashing of our belief in their aesthetic 

 appreciation I Then, finally in the fall, the bond loosens, and the male again drifts apart 

 from his mate and young, who soon begin to wander down the mountain slopes to their 

 winter haunts in the valleys. 



