•38 THE INDIAN CRIMSON TRAG0PAN.
rouse them up, o r 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 cannot
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 arc 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, 1 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 yelping
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 moderatesized
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
THE INDIAN CRIMSON TRAGOPAN. 139
you, and goes off witli a sudden series of alarm notes that
frightens every other bird within a mile, you never having caught
the smallest glimpse of it throughout. But if you are in luck,
and all goes well, the right bird, and the right bird only answers,
and answers nearer and nearer, till, just as your dusky comrade,
forgetting, in his excitement, his wonted respect, pinches your
leg, you see a head emerge for a second from the bases of the
ringal stems opposite ; again and again the head comes out with
more and more of the neck turned rapidly right and left, and
then out darts the would-be combatant towards you ; the
gun goes off, everything is hid for a moment in the smoke
hanging on the damp morning air, and then—well there is no
trace of the Tragopan ! I protest that this is an exact account of
the only good chance I ever had at one of these birds on the
calling " lay."
Alas ! " the merry days when we were young I" I was soaking
wet, my legs were perfect porcupines of spear grass (we had crossed
a low valley) and leeches innumerable were feasting on my miserable
self, but I said, and thought, that it was splendid sport!
The most characteristic points about these Tragopans are
the fleshy horns of the males and their gular lappet, which
latter, during the breeding season, especially when the birds are
excited by passion, extends downwards several inches, but which,
during the winter, are barely traceable.
Thehorns, too, though erected when courting, are greatly diminished
in size during the winter, and even during the breeding
season are, except at moments of excitement, concealed amongst
the crest feathers. They commence on the forehead opposite the
anterior angle of the eye, and their bases extend backwards, as
far as opposite the posterior angle, but despite this lengthened
base, above which they arc sub-cylindrical, they lie back closely
against the occiput and back of the neck, and are completely
hidden by the crest.
The whole orbital region is covered with a peculiar thick velvety
skin, which is prolonged over the lower jaw, and below this
spread and loosened into the gular flap. On t he cheeks this skin
is thinly clad with small soft plumes, on the jaws and chin thinly
sprinkled with hair-like feathers, and on the throat quite naked.
Brilliant as is the plumage of the birds, its effect is greatly
enhanced by the vivid blue of the horns and cheeks and blue and
orange of the wattle, but these are only to be seen to their
fullest advantage when the bird is courting. I have never witnessed
their nuptial dances, but natives have told me of it, and
it has been observed in captivity and carefully described by Mr.
Bartlet, as seen by him in the Zoological Society's Gardens. He
says :—" The males can only be seen to advantage in the early
morning and in the evening, as they conceal themselves during
the day ; the females, however, are less retiring in their habits.
When the male is not excited, the horns lie concealed under