172 THE CHEER. 



these flies straight up into the nearest tree, and thence, 

 standing almost on tip-toe on some horizontal bough, with 

 feathers erected and tail spread, chuckles or crows, or whatever 

 you like to call it, at the barking 1 and yelping Cockers below, till 

 you walk up and (tell it not to your friends when you return 

 to camp) solemnly pot him or her then and there. 



I was once nearly killed by a Cheer. I was standing in a rather 

 awkward place, the extreme outer edge of a plateau jutting 

 out for 20 or 30 yards near the base of a patch of precipitous 

 ground; behind me was a sheer fall of about forty feet; a 

 Cheer was flushed above, it was coming right for me. I let 

 off the gun somehow, and almost before it seemed well off, 

 my gun was dashed aside and I got a blow on the face that 

 made my nose bleed, and knocked me over the precipice, to 

 the bottom of which my gun fell, as should I also, had not the 

 two men squatting at my feet seized my legs. Yet this bird, 

 as the state of the body proved, must have been at least 30 

 yards from me when the shot struck it, and it was stone dead 

 when I had sufficiently recovered myself to think of it. 



But enough of personal reminiscences ; we have a far better 

 account of this species than I can pretend to give in my friend 

 Mr. Wilson's narrative. He says : — 



" This species is an inhabitant of the lower and intermediate 

 ranges, seldom found at very high elevations, and never ap- 

 proaching the limits of forest. 



" Though far from being rare, fewer perhaps are met with 

 than of any other kind unless it is particularly sought for, 

 always excepting the Jewar. The reason of this may be that 

 the general character of the ground where they resort is not so 

 inviting in appearance to the sportsman as other places ; 

 besides, they are everywhere confined to particular localities, 

 and are not, like the rest, scattered indiscriminately over almost 

 every part of the regions they inhabit. Their haunts are on 

 grassy hills with a scattered forest of oak and small patches 

 of underwood, hills covered with the common pine, near the 

 sites of deserted villages, old cow-sheds, and the long grass 

 amongst precipices and broken ground. 



" They are seldom found on hills entirely destitute of trees 

 or jungles, or in the opposite extreme of deep shady forest ; 

 in the lower ranges they keep near the top of the hill or about 

 the middle, and are seldom found in the valleys or deep ravines. 

 Further in the interior they are generally low down, often in 

 the immediate vicinity of the villages, except in the breeding- 

 season, when each pair seeks a spot to perform the business of 

 incubation ; they congregate in flocks of from five or six to 

 ten or fifteen, and seldom more than two or three lots inhabit 

 the same hill. 



" They wander a good deal about the particular hill they 

 are located on, but not beyond certain boundaries, remaining 



