BROWN EARED-PHEASANT 169 



and I believe that the annual altitudinal migration is less than would be expected. 

 Even in summer they are not found on the summits of the ranges, and I believe that 

 throughout the year they can hold their own on the median levels. Where not perse- 

 cuted they are not rare, and in a region which is uninhabited and seldom or never shot 

 over, one may expect to find one or two flocks of considerable size within a day's search. 

 This, of course, was more especially possible in my own case, where my only object was 

 actual search for the pheasants. I have gone carefully over many miles of ideal Eared- 

 pheasant country for two days at a time and seen nothing but several ring-necks, and, 

 on the other hand, travelling in a straight line in the course of a single day I have 

 counted as many as thirty-three birds divided into three flocks. This last is unusual, 

 and wherever the birds are trapped or shot they soon become thinned out or extermi- 

 nated, for they are attached to the limited region which they call home, and being 

 naturally rather stupid and unwary it is not a difficult matter to kill an entire flock. 



The sociability and gregariousness of Eared-pheasants is perhaps more pronounced 

 than in any other species of this family. It is all the more conspicuous a trait from 

 the comparative lack of masculine pugnaciousness, the chief cause of flock and family 

 dissensions among gallinaceous birds. When several birds are kept in captivity in a 

 runway, they are almost always seen close together. No one bird, either male or 

 female, seems to take the lead, but there is seldom a moment when the trio or quartet 

 of birds are more than a few feet apart. As we have seen, this characteristic is true of 

 wild birds. They impress one as rather stupid birds on the whole, but extremely fond 

 of one another's society in this land of desolate vistas and wild winters. 



The flock which I have described in some detail was an exception in its silence ; 

 like most intensely gregarious creatures, Eared-pheasants are rather voluble ; they are 

 continually conversing in undertones, and in fact have as large an intonation vocabulary 

 as our domestic fowls. I was once so hidden that I could not catch a glimpse of six 

 of these pheasants after they had passed my observation tent. They were on a steep 

 slope immediately beneath and hidden by a large projecting boulder, but I could hear 

 every note and could detect contentment, peevishness, anger and alarm as readily as if 

 I had been able to see the cause for each utterance. 



The mating call which corresponds to the crow of other pheasants is uttered by 

 males even after they have paired off, in this case, I presume, the call being more of a 

 challenge, or a warning to possible rivals that the locality and mate are pre-empted. I 

 have also heard it from members of a flock in early spring, both on the ground, on a 

 rounded boulder, and from the branches of a low, straggling oak-tree. During the utter- 

 ance the tail is moderately elevated, with the two central plumes raised well above the 

 others, while the neck is stretched out, the bill pointing almost or quite straight upward. 

 The call may be written Trip — c-r-r-r-r-r-ah ! sometimes, as I have written it, cut off 

 abruptly as a short, sharp, rolling phrase, or again drawn out to considerable length. 

 One man described it as sounding like a cross between the note of a guinea-fowl and a 

 peacock. When thus lengthened it is probably the full elaboration of the call, or perhaps 

 the utterance of an adult male. It begins low and softly and increases rapidly in volume 

 and loudness, continuing sometimes for a full sixty seconds, apparently without the bird 

 drawing breath, although of this I cannot be sure. At any rate no break is detectable. 



In captive birds the longest duration which I have timed is fifteen seconds, and this only 

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