WHITE-TAILED WATTLED PHEASANT I5I 
of second growth, and so keep just ahead or inland of the devastating path of the 
Dyaks. Both seem to cling closely to the rivers and creeks. Away from these aquatic 
highways one may travel for many days and meet neither pheasants nor men. 
My first meeting with the living White-tailed Pheasant gave me an idea of the 
keenness of observation of some of the Dyaks. On July 12, 1910, I sent my Eurasian 
taxidermist and collector on up-river to interest a distant village of Sea-Dyaks in 
trapping Llazou for me. I had collected several argus and fireback pheasants, together 
with a zebra civet and a “moon rat,” and was engrossed in preparing these specimens, 
when two little Dyak boys came to the camp carrying a wicker cage. I gave but a 
glance at the birds through the small interstices, and seeing what I took to be a pair 
of immature crested firebacks, I refused to purchase them, especially as they wanted 
an outrageous price. They carried the birds away, but while I was at tiffin they 
returned with a Dyak from the nearest village, who said the birds were “ B/azou wives.” 
I laughed at this, but looked again at them, and a glance at the ventral surface showed 
that the savage was right and that they were undoubtedly immature male or female 
White-tailed Wattled Pheasants. The three pairs of wattles were plainly distinguish- 
able, and the paleness of the head left no doubt. One of the birds, a young female, 
soon died, but the other lived, was perfectly tame, and for weeks thrived on its paddy. 
Indeed, I was able to ship it from Singapore in good condition, and it lived on board 
ship until within sight of New York City. 
From this time on we had no trouble in collecting adult and first-year birds, but 
in several weeks’ search observed no individual in the chestnut-tailed plumage of the 
second year. In July the pheasants were all moulting heavily, and they showed no 
signs of a recent breeding season. Indeed, the age of the immature birds indicated that 
the nesting season, at least for these individuals, is about April in this part of Sarawak. 
The White-tailed and argus pheasants living, as I have said, usually in the 
vicinity of the larger rivers and streams, may be found in the first, or at most the second 
line of hills stretching back from the banks of the upper reaches of the rivers. Their 
regular habit of leaving these dry, hilly jungles and making their way to the water 
to drink morning and evening, unfortunately facilitates the trapping of these splendid 
birds. The Dyaks cut a line of dense underbrush and pile it along a ridge of hills 
parallel with the river bank, packing it closely, fence-like, uphill and down, winding 
along for a half or even a whole mile. Every ten feet or thereabouts a converging 
semi-circle of bamboo-sticks leads to an opening in this brush fence, and in this is 
spread a noose attached to a bent, living sapling. Each Dyak in some of the villages 
has from twenty to eighty of these traps, and goes his round every morning. If 
the birds are not promptly found and removed, they are invariably devoured by civet 
cats, although these creatures themselves are often caught, together with binturongs 
and porcupines. 
Practically nothing is known about the nesting habits of this pheasant. Three 
Dyaks of as many different tribes assured me that it laid only two eggs, and on two 
separate occasions 1 saw what was very apparently a family of four—parents and two 
young, so that some measure of credence may be given to this number. The only egg 
of which I have knowledge is the one said to be of this species collected near Mount 
Dulit on the Baram River, Sarawak, in September, by A. H. Everett, and now in the 
