44



Sydney Porter—Wanderings in the Far East



up in a casual kind of way, and if one squats down and becomes friendly

with the birds they will start to talk to one in the low murmuring under¬

tones with which Beebe says they talk to each other when searching

for food on the rolling uplands of Eastern Tibet and China.


My little nieces say the birds look as though they had their heads

bandaged up, but somehow they remind me in a remote way of a very

red-faced colonel with a huge white moustache. Be that as it may, I

am sure aviculturists would go a long way before they found a more

delightful bird. They are easy to breed and the bird always commands

a good price on the market.


One of my birds, in keeping with a Specifer Peafowl, has a great

passion for motor-cars, which she will examine by the hour, going round

and round and looking at every part, being particularly interested in the

plated hub-caps in which she sees her reflection.


The Temminck’s Tragopan, one of the most beautiful of Pheasants,

is found in the lower ranges of the mountains of Western Szechuan,

and is more aboreal in its habits than any of the others mentioned. It

is not found higher than about 8,000 feet. The birds are difficult to

keep, and the collector thought that they die of shock when first caught,

as only a few seem to survive the first few weeks after being caught.

These birds and, in fact, all the Pheasants in this region are caught in

spring nooses, and with this species the shock is no doubt often fatal.

They are extremely difficult to observe in a state of nature, and

on the slightest sign of danger they disappear like a flash into the

impenetrable undergrowth. They are not rare in their native habitat-

arid appear to feed to a large extent on insects.


The Blood Pheasants ( Ithagenes ) are the most difficult to keep in

captivity, and very few indeed ever survive the long journey to the

coast. The collector told me that they are the most difficult of all

Pheasants to keep alive after being caught; also they are extremely

pugnacious and will fight to the death ; on this account they can never

be kept together, not even hen and cock, each bird having to be caged

separately. These birds are found higher up than any other Pheasants,

right on the very snow-line, where the weather is very severe. I doubt

if they could ever stand the hot journey through the tropics to this

country.



