138 THE INDIAN CRIMSON TRAGOPAN. 



rouse them up, or of a trained shikari, who will call them out 

 by cleverly imitating their loud bleating cry. 



If you ever catch a passing glimpse of them, it is but for a 

 second ; they drop like stones from their perch and dart away 

 with incredible swiftness, always running, never, so far as I have 

 seen, rising, unless you accidentally almost walk on to them or 

 have dogs with you. 



With good dogs, it is easy enough at times to get them out of 

 the ringal patches that they seem to affect so much ; they can- 

 not run much in these, and as they fluster up to get clear of the 

 bamboos, they present the easiest of shots. When well on 

 the wing they go swift enough, generally down hill, dropping 

 after a quarter of a mile, and then invariably making tracks on 

 foot. It is useless to seek them where they lit, but a cast down 

 the side of the hill, three or four hundred yards right or left 

 of the line they took ( and if there is only one gun you must 

 guess from the look of the ground which way they are likely 

 to have worked), will often put the dogs near enough to find 

 them. The hens are never, I think, seen unless roused by the 

 dogs, and while cocks get up single, three or four hens will be 

 put up in the same place, I mean within a few yards of each 

 other. 



To judge from those I have examined, they feed much on 

 insects, young green shoots of bamboos, and on some onion-like 

 bulbs, but Mr. Hodgson notes that those he examined had fed 

 on wild fruits, rhododendron seeds, and, in some cases, entirely 

 on aromatic leaves, bastard cinnamon, daphne, &c. 



When first roused, they do not take long flights ; if the 

 dogs come upon them, as often happens before they have seen 

 you, they will fly up straight into a tree, and call vociferously, 

 craning down from some nearly horizontal branch at the yelp- 

 ing dogs ; but if they have become aware of the man, they 

 dart off, threading their way through the wilderness of trunks, 

 and are soon lost in the dim recesses of the forest. 



If you succeed in rousing them a second time, or if you have 

 fired at them on a previous day, or even if several shots have 

 been recently fired in their immediate neighbourhood, and you 

 put them up just at the outskirts of the forest, so that there 

 is a clear field before them, they will go right away, across the 

 valley, or right over a hill's brow with a power of wing not to 

 have been anticipated from their usual, when first disturbed, 

 short dodging flights. 



At the end of April, and very likely earlier, the males are heard 

 continually calling. When one is heard calling in any moderate- 

 sized patch of jungle, you make for the nearest adjoining cover, 

 and work your way sufficiently near to the outside to get a view 

 of the intervening space. Then you squat, and your man begins 

 calling. Very soon he is answered, too often by some wretch of 

 a bird behind you, who persists in feretting you out, gets scent of 



