WHITE-TAILED WATTLED PHEASANT 153 
It is probable that the breeding season of these pheasants is rather elastic, and, 
like most tropical birds, may in different localities extend over a good portion of the 
year. Certain it is that in July in Sarawak I obtained birds of five or six months 
of age, and during the same week saw a pair of adult males sparring with one another 
and assiduously courting a female. This was the most important observation which 
it was my good fortune to make concerning these pheasants in Borneo. 
Instead of sunshine, or at least a thin haze of clouds during the day, balanced by 
a terrific downpour of driving rain throughout the night, the reverse one day took 
place, and after I had made an early start and was several long miles from camp, a 
sudden deluge descended upon me, and in a few minutes I was thoroughly drenched. 
I was encumbered with nothing but my stereo glasses, as I had planned a day of pure 
observation. Plodding on through the dripping undergrowth I came to where a great 
tree had fallen-—a tree whose life must have stretched back well beyond the time when 
white men first set foot in Borneo. It had been strongly buttressed in all directions, 
but a stroke of lightning had run down the trunk and splintered one of the great basal 
supporting walls of living wood, and thus unsupported, the mighty mass had given 
way. It had cut a wide swathe for itself, carrying down all the lesser growth in its 
path. Under the shelter of two of its remaining upreared buttresses I found ample 
protection, and here I remained for many hours watching the jungle life of a rainy day. 
None but small folk came near, however, until well after midday, when the sun at last 
broke through, although the saturated forest continued to rain down drops for many 
a minute after the whole sky above had cleared. ‘The first intimation I had that 
pheasants were about was a sharp, nervous kak! kak! which came from the other 
end of the mass of shattered foliage. By slow and painful manceuvring I was able 
to peer out unseen and to detect a male White-tail stalking slowly along at full height, 
concentrating his attention upon a clump of maroon-leaved plants near by. Whatever 
it was which had excited his interest or suspicion he was soon satisfied that all was 
well, and he began feeding unconcernedly, scratching in the mould, or now and then 
picking some insect from a leaf. For seven or eight minutes I watched him, and at 
last dared to shift my glasses and rest them upon a ledge of bark, so that I was able 
to see even the contraction and dilation of his pupil as he remained motionless for a 
moment. The splash of falling drops, the twitter of small flycatchers, even the sudden, 
wholly unexpected and startling notes of a barbet did not distract his attention a 
moment. But always he was alert, always a momentary snatch at some morsel of 
food was followed by an instant of concentrated listening, a quick, comprehensive glance 
which took in all the adjacent shrubs which might shelter a foe. 
A change at last came over him; without seeming alarmed, his attention became 
focussed more and more in a particular direction. Straining all my senses, I could 
neither hear nor see anything—but he knew of something which was as a fourth 
dimension to my dulled faculties of perception. Finally the bird ceased all attempts | 
at feeding and stood immovable, never taking his eye from the edge of the jungle. 
At that exact spot, after several minutes of further waiting, a pair of adult White-tails 
emerged rather precipitately, the female first, as if the male had been pursuing her. On 
the instant both caught sight of the waiting bird, and both uttered a low, startled faz ! 
In a moment, however, the alarm passed and the female came diagonally across the 
VOL, II x 
