RELAX NG

Colophon

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The animal on the cover of RELAX NG is a blood pheasant (Ithaginis cruentus). Unlike other pheasants, the blood pheasant resembles a partridge in size and shape. Its crest is grey, and the male’s forehead, face, and throat are red. A female’s upper features are more rust-colored. Both males and females have grey to light brown bodies.

The blood pheasant lives in the coniferous forests of the Himalayas, from Nepal through Tibet into northern Burma to northwest China. It lives in flocks of 4-20 in nonbreeding season, up to 40 in winter. Between late April and early May, the female fills a shallow saucer nest of dry twigs lined with leaves with up to 14 eggs. Chicks are born in mid-June and able to follow mother to feed at two days old.

The blood pheasant picks up food with its bill and seldom digs with its claws, although it sometimes jumps up to shrubs to feed. It’s considered a good runner but a poor flier. When threatened, it rushes down hills and hides under stones. Because it lives in such remote regions, however, the blood pheasant population remains stable and unthreatened by man.

Mary Anne Weeks Mayo was the production editor, and Nancy Wolfe Kotary was the copyeditor for RELAX NG. Reg Aubry and Colleen Gorman provided quality ...