HIMALAYAN IMPEYAN PHEASANT 137 



The nesting site is usually the ground under some shrub or tree, the hen sometimes 

 scratching a hollow, and sometimes collecting a scanty lining of straws or grass. 

 Occasionally the eggs are deposited on an elevated shelf or box, but I can find no 

 reason for the broad statement that the hens, like the tragopans, usually lay their 

 eggs in elevated boxes and artificial nests in shrubs. 



As regards food for the chicks, one successful breeder advises ants' eggs, bread- 

 crumbs, hard-boiled egg, wheat, buckwheat and millet, berries and soft insects. 



A regime which I have found as satisfactory as any consists of a mash of hard- 

 boiled eggs, lettuce, bread-crumbs and crushed hemp seed, given fresh three or four 

 times a day, all traces of the previous meal being removed ; several daily supplies of 

 ants' eggs and meal-worms, as well as cut-up raw onions and apples, are given. Later, 

 maggots cleansed in bran are valuable. By far the most important items are worms and 

 insects, and especially when the young birds have the opportunity to dig these for them- 

 selves. The best results have been attained where the young have been allowed to roam 

 all day at will over a large uncut enclosure, or to dig with their beaks among the vege- 

 tables in a garden, the latter experiment resulting in plump, healthy young Impeyans, 

 but no vegetables ! It must be remembered that these birds are fitted for a life of 

 digging, and if we consider the possible subterranean food supply, we will realize that 

 worms, grubs and other insects, raw vegetables, such as lettuce, onions, potatoes and 

 apples, will more closely approximate the food thus obtained in the Himalayas than 

 the ordinary grain diet upon which other groups of pheasants thrive. Wheat and 

 barley are the best grains for Impeyans ; corn is the worst. 



Stale food or uncleansed maggots will make short work of young Impeyans, and, 

 in some cases, a single meal of such improper food has been known to destroy an entire 

 brood of strong three-months-old birds. 



If we may judge from his reports, H. Flocard of Rocroi, France, has had 

 remarkable success in breeding and rearing Impeyans, and I have translated the more 

 interesting parts of an account written recently by him. 



The lophophore resplendissant does not suffer from our climate even in the 

 colder portions of France, where I have bred them for forty years (Rocroi, N.E. France, 

 circa 50 N. Lat). The laying of eggs commences during the first part of April, or 

 sometimes on the last days of March. By using careful judgment one may, little by 

 little, accustom a cock to the care of two hens. The birds can live and reproduce up 

 to an age of twenty-five or even thirty years. This may appear to be an exaggeration, 

 but I have proved it. The food of the adult is much like that of the other pheasants : 

 corn, wheat, buckwheat, and much green stuff. In winter the green food may be replaced 

 by the roots of wild endives and dandelions, or carrots cut up into pieces. 



From March 15th to June 15th stimulating food is required, and it is best to 

 feed twice daily bread-crumbs and hard-boiled eggs, a single egg to a pair of birds, or 

 two if there be an extra hen. A larger amount of this egg food will prove injurious, 

 and soon the birds will refuse even this small quantity. A conifer should be placed 

 in the aviary, a fir, arbor vitae or yew, at the base of which an excavation should be 

 made containing an artificial egg. Here the hens will lay. 



The eggs should not be allowed to remain long in the nest for fear of injury. 

 They should be placed in an uncovered box, in a bed of wheat or other grain, in a 



