8o A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 



Whenever I encountered these pheasants it was in some striking situation — clearly 

 marked in memory by the presence of unusual creatures of the jungle, or some strange 

 physical environment. And so I came gradually to set them apart from their brethren 

 vi'hom I had seen in Burma and elsewhere, skulking fowl-like, or seen in other uninspired 

 positions. And, as is almost the rule in such study, my most interesting facts came by 

 accident. 



Deep in the hinterland of Pahang, following devious trails and led by savages who 

 seemed half Malay, half Sakai, I reached one day some wonderful limestone caverns 

 deep in the jungle. The long morning's walk had led along narrow, almost invisible, 

 animal trails with the fronds and branches reeking with moisture flicking our faces ; the 

 air hot, saturated and heavy with the beloved odours of primal nature ; the rich smell of 

 moist mould and dripping fungus, the heavy, almost sickening sweet perfume from some 

 tangled mass of unnamed bloom ; the keen-edged scent of mating insects, the sharp musk 

 of a fleeing civet. All these hold the interest in the dense jungle, as keenly as do the 

 sights and sounds of more open forest glades. Every hundred yards we stopped to 

 dislodge the leeches, my guides with stick or fingers, I with a pair of forceps which I 

 found more effective. 



At the entrance to the cave I found a barrier in the dry, loose sand, the lime-saturated 

 water and the bat guano, which even the leeches could not cross. Beyond this was a 

 cool, peaceful haven — a great, columned, cathedral-like entrance, rising majestically from the 

 jungle floor, and through the cool dusk of its interior showing glimpses of other openings, 

 distant bits of green foliage, the lights and shadows filtered and toned down as through 

 stained-glass windows. Lofty balconies and arcades extended partly around the cavern, 

 as convenient to reach and comfortable to traverse as though fashioned by human fore- 

 thought. Leaning over the balcony were gargoyles and motionless spectators, stalactite 

 moulded, here a hideous half serpent, half bull, there an aged man bent and attentive. 

 Could he speak, what tales he could tell of the scenes enacted in the wide expanse of 

 cavern — by night and by day — through all the ages ! 



The cave abounded with interesting hints of lives which had been led within its 

 shelter. The oldest characters on this palimpsest were of the wild nomadic Sakies. 

 Traces of their fires were visible, and far up, in small crevices, to be reached only by a 

 man's hand and arm, were many packages bound up in skeleton leaves, which once had 

 been thick and green. Within were numbers of bones of many creatures — monkey skulls, 

 both the large wa-was and the lesser four-handed folk ; mouse-deer, carnivores and many 

 small animals — all the remains of feasts, preserved thus by the mandate of some religious 

 or other rite. More recent were the elephant tracks, and on a flat boulder was the 

 remains of a tiger's meal — part of the skull and shoulder-blade of a wild boar. Along 

 the cliffs partly outside the cave were deep, narrow crevices running far in out of sight, 

 and at the entrance of these crannies were terminal moraines of feathers of small birds 

 and the fur and bones of rodents — the remnants of many meals of fierce musangs or 

 civet cats, and other small carnivora. Still farther away on the jungle edge were piles of 

 broken and cleaned-out land shells, some of large size. These accumulated shells were 

 found also scattered about in the jungle near by, and I frightened away several large, 

 brown hawks from them, showing at least one collector of mollusks. Indeed, I believe 

 these birds were the gatherers of all, for in the course of several days' observations I saw 



