208 THE VERMICELLATED PHEASANT. 



occur anywhere about Mergui or to the south of that place. 

 Not long ago it used to occur in the immediate neighbourhood 

 of Moulmein, but all seem to have been trapped or shot off now. 



"They come continually into the open to feed about rice 

 fields and clearings. They are shy, and usually run in pre- 

 ference to flying when disturbed, except when put up by a 

 dog, when they immediately perch. Captain Bingham tells me 

 that on bright moonlight nights they constantly come out into 

 the clearings. Their food consists of grain, seeds of various 

 kinds, young leaves and grass, grubs, and insects. 



"They seem to prefer bamboo, or moderately thin tree 

 jungle, to dense forest. They are found singly, in pairs, and 

 sometimes several together ; when disturbed, they utter a 

 peculiar clicking noise. The Burmans trap numbers of males 

 with the aid of a decoy bird, which is taken to the jungle and 

 fastened by the leg to a peg and surrounded by a circle of 

 nooses ; the decoy bird calls and makes a peculiar buzzing 

 sound with his wings, and any males within hearing are attract- 

 ed by the sound, and, rushing up to attack the decoy bird, are 

 caught in the nooses. The birds are very pugnacious, and even 

 in a wild state are continually fighting with each other." 



It is, I notice, a mistake to suppose that this plan of capturing 

 the males can only be adopted in the breeding season. The 

 tame male can always be induced to " buzz" by imitating the 

 sound from some place hidden to him. This the Burmans do 

 by twisting very rapidly between the palms of the hands a- 

 small stick, into a split at the top of which a piece of stiff cloth 

 or a stiff leaf has been transversely inserted. 



Nor is it a fact that this peculiar noise is only made by the 

 wild birds during the breeding season, or that it is as rare to 

 hear it as Colonel Tickell makes out in his amusing notice of 

 it that I shall now quote. On the contrary, Davison tells me 

 that he has heard it fifty times, and several times in both De- 

 cember and January. 



Colonel Tickell says : — 



" The noise in question is the most extraordinary and the 

 most unnatural, that is to say, the most unbirdlike, I have 

 ever heard. I was one day, in the cold season of 1859-60, 

 looking out for a rhinoceros in the hills which skirt the eastern 

 limits of the Tenasserim provinces. Some very recent marks 

 of the animal were pointed out to me by my Karen guides, and 

 following the traces through the jungle down the hill-side, I 

 was at last brought up by a profound ravine. While some of 

 my party left me to reach the bottom of this dell by a more 

 circuitous and practicable route and I remained perched on the 

 steep declivity, a singular reverberating sound reached my ears, 

 proceeding apparently from the deep valley below me. It was 

 a tremulous subdued noise, as if the mountains were shuddering 

 in an ague fit, and I, who was thinking of nothing but rhinoce- 



