THE VERMICELLATED PHEASANT. 20O, 



roses at the time, and had made up my mind to see a host of 

 them emerge from the dense jungle as the result of so strange 

 a symphony, was utterly amazed by my Karen companions 

 telling me the noise was made by the " Yits " (Hill Pheasants). 

 I could not help smiling at such a singularly literal illustration 

 of the fabled mountain in labour with the nascitur ridiculus mus 

 enacted by these funny birds. I have only on that occasion 

 heard this extraordinary sound, though for weeks at a 

 time journeying and living in forests abounding in Hill 

 Pheasants." 



Darling, writing from the Tenasserim Hills in the Moulmein 

 District, says : — 



" This bird was also very common at Thowngyah, — its habits 

 the same as those of the Grey Peacock Pheasant, — feeding in 

 thick clumps of bamboos and bushes in small parties. I have 

 never seen them in the open. Unlike the Peacock Pheasant, 

 however, this bird, when disturbed, at once flies away, sometimes 

 getting into a tree, but generally with a noiseless and low flight 

 a long way into the jungle ; when roused they always emit 

 a whistled ' yit.' 



THIS SPECIES breeds from almost sea level up to an elevation 

 of at least three thousand feet. 



The season varies according to locality and elevation, and a 

 fresh egg or two may be found in the first week of March, and a 

 clutch of eggs not yet hatched off up to quite the middle of May. 



Apparently in some localities they breed much later, or per- 

 haps they have two broods in the year. Captain Feilden has 

 seen young, recently-hatched chicks, at Thayetmyo in August. 



The nest is either a slight hollow scratched in the ground 

 and thinly lined or sprinkled with dry leaves and perhaps a few 

 feathers, or it is a depression scratched out or indented into 

 some natural heap or bed of dry leaves. 



The nest is generally placed at the foot of some tree, or 

 beside some fallen monarch of the forest, or in some dense 

 clump of bamboo. Generally it is well concealed, but at times 

 nests are met with in comparatively very exposed positions. 



Seven or eight is the usual complement of eggs, but natives 

 talk of finding fourteen and fifteen at times, so that possibly 

 occasionally two hens may lay in the same place. 



Writing from Tenasserim, Captain Bingham says : — 



"On the 1 6th March, while pushing through some thick bamboo 

 jungle, I found at the foot of a Pynkadoe tree (Xylia dolabrifor- 

 mis) a nest of this handsome Pheasant, and managed to shoot 

 the female by hiding close by. The nest contained seven eggs, 

 slightly set, placed in a little hollow that had been scratched in 

 the ground and lined with leaves and a few feathers. The eggs 

 arc a pinkish stone colour, minutely pitted all over." 



27 



