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Pheasant, Fire-backed, possessing spurs. Pheasant, Golden, display of plumage by the male; age of mature plumage in the; sex of young, ascertained by pulling out head-feathers. Pheasant, Kalij, drumming of the male. Pheasant, Reeve's, length of the tail in. Pheasant, Silver, triumphant male, deposed on account of spoiled plumage; sexual coloration of the. Pheasant, Soemmerring's.
The common pariah kite. Tinnunculus alaudaris. The kestrel. Sphenocercus sphenurus. The kokla green-pigeon. Turtur suratensis. The spotted dove. Macropygia tusalia. The bar-tailed cuckoo-dove. Gennæus leucomelanus. The Nepal kalij pheasant. This is the only pheasant at all common about Darjeeling.
It is distinguished from the white-crested kalij pheasant by the cock having a glossy blue-black crest. The hens of the two species resemble one another closely in appearance. Coturnix communis. The grey quail. Arboricola torqueola. The common hill partridge. Francolinus vulgaris. The black partridge. Fairly common at elevations below 4000 feet. Scolopax rusticola. The woodcock.
The crest is white in the cock and reddish yellow in the hen. Baldwin describes the call of this pheasant as "a sharp twut, twut, twut. Sometimes very low, with a pause between each note, then suddenly increasing loudly and excitedly." The kalij usually affords rather poor sport. It may be distinguished from the kalij by its not having the red patch of skin round the eye.
Of these three the kalij is the only one likely to be seen in the ordinary course of a walk. The others are not likely to show themselves unless flushed by a dog. The bird does not come up to the Englishman's ideal of a pheasant. The bushy tail causes it to look rather like a product of the farmyard. The cock is over two feet in length, the hen is five inches shorter.
As this book is written with the object of enabling persons staying at the various hill-stations to identify the commoner birds, I do not propose to describe the gallinaceous denizens of the higher ranges or the foothills. In the ranges of moderate elevation, on which all the hill-stations are situated, the kalij, the cheer, and the koklas pheasants are common.
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