56 A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 
of chestnut. Among other vegetable items found in their crops are small, tuber-like 
roots and jungle yam. If these are small they are swallowed whole; if of larger size 
they are pecked to pieces, a habit which is very common among the argus pheasants. 
Besides these the Lineated Kaleege eats jungle berries and seeds, fruits, flower petals, 
fern fronds, young leaves, grass and bamboo sprouts. Nisbett says that he has never 
found any grain in their crops, although he has known them to feed on the edges of fields 
containing rice, maize and millet. As to this habit of approaching human habitations 
or areas of cultivation, the habits of the Lineated seem to differ in various localities. 
Some observers report it as among the shyest of birds, never being found within several 
miles of any native hut or village, while elsewhere it seems to spend much of its time 
feeding near fields. It is generally agreed that it does not object to unfrequented trails, 
and a half-dozen sportsmen have spoken of finding the best shooting while walking 
along these jungle paths. The insects taken most frequently are the non-flying, jungle- 
inhabiting forms, such as caterpillars, grubs, and of course the ubiquitous termites or 
white ants. 
The pheasants roost in small trees and on slanting bamboos, usually selecting 
places which would be difficult of access to civet cats and arboreal carnivores. The 
finding of regular roosting-places proved to be only a little more difficult than the 
locating of birds’ nests in general. The search was made possible by the conspicuous 
sign, the good-sized piles of which often indicated the long-continued use of one 
particular spot on a certain branch. In the vicinity, sometimes in the same tree, were 
usually the roosts of other birds, two or three close together, or singly. In these 
separate instances the number was too great for a single family, indicating that the 
fragile flocking instinct which drew the birds together on their search for water, was 
maintained throughout the hours of sleep. The roosts were almost always on rather 
slender bamboos or tenuous branches, perhaps guarding against the unheralded approach 
of a carnivore by the vibration of the thin branch. 
Personally I failed to observe any convoying of Lineated Pheasants by jay-thrushes 
or other birds, but both Payne and Phillips have reported this to me as a common 
association, a fact of no unusual moment when we remember the universality of its 
occurrence among other species of the genus. As to enemies, I can present no direct 
data, but it is safe to mention wild cats, civets and martens as in the front rank. 
Their method of escape from danger varies with the character of the attack. A sudden 
alarm by dog or man will send the birds up and away at once, flying above the trees if 
out over a valley, or low and swiftly between the trunks in the jungle itself. When 
prepared for the appearance of a dog, the pheasants fly at once into the nearest tree, and 
sit there cackling softly, watching their disturber until he goes out of sight, or ready to 
fly at once at the approach of his master. In any event the birds are exceedingly 
difficult of observation by direct approach, but extremely easy if one conceals oneself in 
the line of their advance down a hillside or nulla. 
HOME LIFE 
Although within the twenty-five hundred feet of elevation, and the ten degrees 
of latitude of distribution the Lineated Kaleege encounters many changes of climate, 
