44 A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 
about me with the sweet odour of the large pink blossoms which draped the trees 
overhead. 
I fixed my eye on a rotten log, and strived at the same time to take note of the 
line of underbrush each side. I longed to stretch my 20° of vision to the 85° of 
a hare! 
Without a note or sound of approach I suddenly saw a crested head shoot up 
from behind the log, just along the barrel of the gun, and not six feet from the end. 
The patch of scarlet face skin shone for an instant as brilliantly as the flaming ginger 
blossom at my feet. I pulled trigger and a cloud of leaves, splinters and earth flew 
up and two male pheasants rose, flew ten or fifteen feet and settled again. I lay quietly, 
and, to my surprise, the birds came nearer, cackling and gurgling excitedly. Now 
they shifted to the right, then to the left, always out of sight down the hill. 
I knew the slightest movement of mine would alarm them, so I flattened down 
into the spicy forest ooze and waited. They would advance a few yards, cackle, then 
give their wing whirr softly and return. Twice when a little distance away they had 
encounters—feinting like game-cocks and striking with their spurs. But no real harm 
was intended, and the mock battles seemed but the result of their excitement. Finally, 
they made a complete circle to higher ground, discovered me and ran rapidly off. 
For at least five minutes the two birds had remained within twenty-five feet of 
where the shot had been fired. Creeping to the log, I peered over and saw my bird 
lying dead a few feet down the slope, killed not by my shot, but by the shower of debris. 
It was a Black-breasted Kaleege, typical in every feather. . 
GENERAL DISTRIBUTION 
The range of the Black-breasted Kaleege covers Eastern Bhutan, Assam and much 
of Upper Burma, including Sylhet, Cachar, Hill Tipperah, Chittagong, North Arrakan 
and Manipur. To the north it ranges throughout the terai and foot-hills of Bhutan 
from 91° E. Long. east to at least beyond Sadiya. To the west it does not reach the 
Brahmapootra, although this is probably due only to lack of favourable country. It 
touches the coast in Chittagong and Northern Arrakan, extending southward to 20° or 
perhaps 19° N. Lat. It thence ranges diagonally north-eastward until it reaches its 
most easterly point just east of the Irrawaddy, at about 26° N. Lat. and almost 
987 =, sone: 
GENERAL ACCOUNT 
The Black-breasted Kaleege is one of the most interesting of its group. It is the 
first of the kaleege which are strung in a line along the Himalayan terai and foot-hills 
from east to west, Zorsfieldi, melanonotus, leucomelanus and albocristatus. The Black- 
breasted has a wider range than any of the others, and is notable as being one of the 
three Genxnaeus which meet in Burma, hybridize and give rise to the numerous forms 
to which names have been given indiscriminately. 
Curiously: enough it is the darkest of the allied Himalayan kaleege, while it 
touches and crosses with the Silver forms which are the whitest. Its haunts are at - 
lower altitudes than the others, and much more humid in character. Its home range, 
