The SIKKIM KALEEGE, BLACK PHEASANT, or KIRRIK
(_Euplocamus-Gallophasis-melanotus_), as it is called in India, has the
entire mantle of a glossy black, a part of the throat and the breast are
whitish, the belly and feathers on the tail-covers dull brownish black.
The eye is brown, the beak greyish yellow, the bare cheek bright red, and
the foot grey. The length of this bird is twenty-three and the breadth
twenty-eight inches; the wing measures eight inches and three-quarters,
and the tail ten inches. The female is somewhat smaller, and is
principally of an umber-brown, each feather having a light tip and lines
on the shaft; these markings are broader and lighter on the under side
and upper wing-covers than on the back; the throat-feathers are light
grey, unspotted; and the centre tail-feathers deep brown, marked with
light grey; those at the sides are greyish, with a green gloss.
Jerdon tells us the Sikkim Black Pheasant is met with in Nepaul, in some
portions of the country being replaced by _Gallophasis Horsfieldii_. He
informs us that about Darjeeling it is the only Pheasant at all common,
and is not unfrequently put up on the roadside by dogs, when it at once
takes refuge in trees. It is found at an altitude of from 3,000 to nearly
8,000 feet. It walks and runs with its tail semi-erect, and frequents both
forests and bushy and grassy ground, coming to the fields and to more
open spaces to feed in the morning and evening. Its eggs are occasionally
found by the coolies, when weeding the tea-gardens in June and July, and
are usually from five to eight in number. Its call sounds something like
"koorchi-koorchi," at other times it resembles "kooruk-kooruk."