THE GAME BIRDS OF INDIA. 327 



"invited or encouraged the dis2)Iay as the lover was digging out 

 "his breakfast until he heard the call sounded." 

 General habits. — The Moonal is essentially a bird of high elevations, 

 ascendmg and descending the moimtains practically with the snow 

 line though throughout the winter months many birds, more especially 

 the males, remain where the snow lies more or less thickly. They are 

 not found, however, above forest or thick bush jungle, such as rhodo- 

 dendron, though for feeding purposes they may be met with in the 

 mornmgs and evenings wandering about the grassy slopes considerably 

 higher up than these limits. They live, however, in the forests and 

 directly they are disturbed seek their cover. 



Koughly speaking in summer they are generally to be obtained 

 between 10,000 and 14,000 feet, provided the country is suitable, but 

 they wander up considerably higher than this, and have also been 

 recorded from much lower. At one t ime they were really very common 

 allroimd Mussooiie and the adjoming hills at an elevation of about 9,000 

 feet, and as already noted, were found breeding below Simla, down 

 to a height of some 7,500 feet. 



In wmter they descend to 6,000 and even 5,000 feet and Perreau 

 foimd them common at the latter height in Chitral. Hume also 

 remarks that diu'iug particularly bad weather they are sometimes 

 driven down as low as 4,500 feet at which elevation his people occasion- 

 ally killed them. 



With constant persecution the birds have of late years moved 

 further and further away from civilization and although in some parts 

 from Kashmir and Garhwal to Sikkim they are still common ; they 

 have left many of their old haunts and "wiiere in " Mountaineer's " 

 day they were obtained in hundreds, the occurrence of odd speci- 

 mens and pairs is all that can now be hoped for. 



In a letter to me Mr. H. Stevens tells me that they are still very 

 common in many parts of native Sikkim, but they are much more 

 rare now all round Darjiling itself though they are still to be found if 

 one knows where to look — ^at no great distance from that charmmg 

 Hill Station. Mr. S. L. AMiymper found them common in many of 

 the higher, well- wooded valleys of Garhwal, and they are equally so 

 in some of the less frecjuented parts of Kashmir. In this State also 

 under the fostering care of Col. Ward and the Maharajah they 

 undoubtedly have become more numerous of late years. 



Mr. C. H. Donald in some notes kindly sent me from Simla writes 

 thus of Moonal at the present day : — 



" The Moonal is still found in the Chor, throughout the Jubal 

 "and Taroche States in suitable localities. In the Bushahi 

 "State— on the right bank of the Sutlej River,— they are fairly 

 " numerous throughout the portion known as the Pundrabis Range, 

 " i.e., from the Kulu-Bushahr border almost up to the Rogi on the 

 " Hindustan-Tibet Road, but get scarce towards Rogi on the 



