I have never known this mode of capture resorted to in the
Himalayas, the reason being, I believe, the difficulty that exists
in taming the present species.
Wilson continues :—
" It feeds on roots, grubs, insects, seeds and berries, and the
leaves and shoots of shrubs. It is rather difficult tn rear in
confinement when caught old ; and the few chicks I have tried
have also soon died, though possibly from want of proper care
and attention. It is singular that, of the Hill Pheasants, the
one most common near the habitations of man should so ill
brook the loss of liberty, while the Jewar (Ceriornis melanocephalus),
the most retired and solitary of all, is the most easily
reconciled to it.
" In the lower hills, in the absence of larger game, this bird
may serve to wile away a few hours of the sportsman's time
in almost every place where there is wood or jungle ; narrow
well-wooded ravines and thickets of low jungles are the places
in which to seek it. A good dog is essential ; and without one,
though a bird may be occasionally picked up, it is hardly worth
while going out. In travelling in the interior, a dog used to
hill-shooting should always, if available, be brought; and with
its assistance a few Kalij may be bagged in some of the
coppices and jungle passed through almost every day's march,
till the regions where larger game is expected arc reached."
Captain J. H. Baldwin makes some very correct original
remarks in regard to this species, which I take the liberty of
quoting :—
" I t s favourite habitat is among thick clumps of bushes and
shrubs near the banks of rivers, in low valleys through which
streams of water run, and on the slopes of hills where there is
plenty of low bush cover, especially thorny thickets bordering
on cultivation ; in the early morning, the vicinity of an old deserted
cow-shed is a sure resort of this bird if anywhere in the
neighbourhood. I have flushed this Pheasant and the common
red Jungle Fowl from the same description of cover at the foot
of the bills. The call of the bird, which may be heard at all
times of the day, is a sharp fwut, twnt, twnt, sometimes very
low, with a long pause between each note, then suddenly increasing
loudly and excitedly. Generally speaking, when uttering
this cry, which at times might be mistaken by any one unacquainted
with it for that of some small bird, the Kalij is
alarmed by a prowling Marten or Hawk hovering overhead, perhaps
a dog, but still oftener it is heard when a pair of cocks are
about to engage in mortal combat.
"Not unfrequently a cunning old cock, instead of taking wing
at once when the dog is close upon him, has a provoking habit,
most irritating to both dog and master, of flying up into a tree,
making a prodigious clucking the while, and at the same time
taking a look round to see if the coast is clear. The bird in this
manner often observes where the gun is posted, and then takes
wing in a safe direction.
" The Kalij Pheasant, when alarmed, will generally fly down
the khad, and will often take along the side of the hill. Though
it will run, yet it will hardly ever Jly up hill. Its speed when
well on the wing is amazing, greater frequently, I am certain,
than any rocketer out of an English cover.
" When not bullied by the hill men, they will come close up
t o the backs of villages, especially if there arc fields of corn at
hand. I have shot them out of standing crops when the fields
are situated near the jungle."
Referring to the whirring sound they make most commonly,
but not exclusively, in the breeding season, he says :—
" We had been sitting motionless for, I suppose, half an hour,
when I was startled, all of a sudden, by the loud drumming
noise I have already described close at hand. The sound came
from behind, and on looking over my shoulder, my companion
with a smile pointed out the drummer. An old cock Kalij was
squatting on the stump of a fallen tree, and, with its feathers all
ruffled and tail spread, was causing this extraordinary sound by
rapidly beating its wings against its body."
As regards this last, it is no doubt difficult to see how the bird
makes the peculiar sound referred to ; the wings are kept in
such rapid vibration that you can only see a haze, but I myself
think that the wings arc not struck against the body, and that
the sound is merely caused by the extremely rapid movement
of the wings, through the tensely strung feathers of which the
air hurtles.
Another writer notices a very characteristic habit this species
has, where a good deal shot at, of flying up, when disturbed, into
some tree, and there remaining perched motionless in some fork,
or dense patch of foliage, or upright against the trunk, so that
it is almost impossible to see it. You walk round and round,
you throw stones, but nothing appears ; suddenly some one
catches sight of it, that same instant it drops like a stone from
its perch always with the trunk between it and the gun, and is
off down the ravine without a single call or flutter, before
you even know that it has been sighted.
Though Wilson does not notice it, they feed greedily on
grain, and my people at Kotgarh used to snare numbers
in the winter, by little heaps of grain laid in fields where
on previous mornings they had been noticed feeding. Mons.
Chauveau, Bishop of Sebastopol, but stationed at Ta-tsicnlon,
on the Chinese and Tibetan frontier, tells us, that Lady
Amherst's Pheasants are there so wide awake that, on
discovering such a bait, they suspect a snare, and try to brush
away the grain with their immense long tails, and thus eat it in
safety. Our Theasants are not quite so advanced in civilization
as these Chinese ones.