THE GREY PEACOCK-PHEASANT. 107 



Fowl, by hunting the forest with a couple of dogs (mongrels). 

 When any one of these birds is started, the dogs invariably give 

 chase, and soon ' tree' the fugitive. The dogs generally continue 

 giving tongue, until one reaches the tree. This must seem a 

 very unsportsman-like way of shooting Pheasants, but any one 

 acquainted with Cachar jungles will allow that it is about the 

 only way to get a shot at any game birds, excepting Duck, 

 Snipe, and Quail. 



" The Kookies snare numbers of the Poly plectrum on their 



* jhoomsy or cultivation clearings, inside the forests. The snare 

 consists generally of a sapling, or branch of a tree, bent towards 

 the ground ; one end of a piece of string is fastened to the sap- 

 ling, and on the other end is a noose ; the noose is spread round 

 a small hole in the earth ; the trap itself is a simple contrivance 

 of a few split pieces of bamboo ; the bait is a small red berry of 

 which the bird is very fond ; the berry is firmly attached to the 

 trap, and the bird pecking at the berry releases the catch, the 

 sapling flies up, and the bird is noosed by the neck or feet, or 

 sometimes both. If the bird is to be taken alive, a very supple 

 sapling is chosen, so that the bird is not suspended, but if the 

 bird is to be eaten at once, a stiff sapling is selected, so that it 

 is lifted right off its legs and hung up high enough to be well 

 out of the reach of cats, jackals, and other vermin. 



" Females are not so often snared as males. The hill people 

 call them ' Mohr,' or Peacock, and do not seem to know when 

 they breed or where. I have offered rewards for a nest, but 

 without success. I have not seen a bird between June and 

 November ; perhaps they retire into quieter jungles when 

 breeding." 



Mr. R. A. Clark, who was in the Mynadhar garden below 

 Tipai Mukh in Cachar, and has shot numbers of this species, 

 gives me the following information : — 



" The Peacock-Pheasant is very common in North- 

 Eastern Cachar, where it is found in dense bamboo 

 jungle, on the sides of ravines, and on the tops of the 

 low ranges of hills wherever there are Jdmun trees, as 

 well as on the banks of the river ' Barak/ wherever it is well 

 wooded. On the rocky faces of the ' Barak' banks there is a 

 tree, which, during the rainy season, is partially submerged, but 

 in the cold weather bears a fruit with seeds like those of a 



* chilli.' On these the birds feed greedily in the early morning 

 and towards sunset ; insects and worms, with this fruit, form their 

 chief food, but I have on one occasion found small land shells 

 and pebbles in the stomach of an adult male. 



" These birds may be heard in the early morning and at sunset 

 calling, and then the male is generally to be found perched on 

 some branch, only a few feet off the ground. The call is ha-ha- 

 ha-ha, something like a laugh, and can be heard from a good 

 distance ; the female's note I have never heard. 



