710 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXVI. 



rufous. Below pale fulvous or yellow-buff, gre3^er and duller on 

 abdomen and darker and rufescent on the under aspect of tail tuft. 

 Wings rufous-buff, mottli^d and barred with blackish-brown ; the 

 greater coverts edged with ochre. 



Bistrihution. — Hume gives this bird's Western limits as the 



Alaknanda Valley in Garhwal, and from that point it extends 



through Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan into the Hills N. of the 



Brahmapootra as far East as Tezpur or Danang. Beebe adds 



nothing to its known area of habitat, but confirms Hume's record 



from Alaknanda. Mr. 8. L. Whymper, in a letter to me, writes : 



" The exact limits of the two species I do not know, but I 



have shot T. satyra on the East bank ©f the Alaknanda and 



melanocejJialus on the West bank of the Bhagirutti, so that 



there is a large tract of country unaccounted for ; roughly, 



however, it may be said that the upper waters of the Ganges 



forms the dividing line." 



Nidifjcation. — ^There is practically nothing on record about the 



nidification of this bird in a state of nature, though it breeds 



commonly in captivit}^ Hume obtained its eggs from natives — 



he does not say how many — who took them in May in forests 



below the level of the snows between 9,000 and 12,000 feet or in 



dense patches of hill-bamboo. 



Although these nests were apparently on the ground, I expect 

 that normally it is a tree-nester like the rest of the family. In 

 1918 I was fortunate enough to receive two birds obtained with 

 their nests in the Chambi Valley, and in both cases the latter had 

 been built in trees. Mr. D. M., w4io obtained them for me, 

 writes as follows about them : — 



" The eggs of this Pheasant, Cham-dang in Tibetan, were 

 taken in the Rhododendron and Oak Forest in the Chambi 

 Vailey, and were found in a nest which was built in a tree 

 at about 20 feet from the ground, and quite hidden from view 

 until the hen bird flew from it and so disclosed its position. 

 The two eggs already had signs of chicks in them. The forest _ 

 here is very thick, but stunted, and the ground much broken 

 up by huge great rocks covered with moss and ferns and 

 ground, trees and rocks seem ever to be w^et and damp. 



" The nest was just a jumble of ver)'" old dead twigs and 

 branches, mostly rotten, and veiy fragile, perhaps the bird did 

 not built it, but found this old mass of sticks and turned it 

 into a nest. 



" The other nest was the same, but empty and lower down 

 in the tree, the men could almost reach up to it. 



" The natives tell me that they only lay two eggs as a 

 rule, never more than four and certainly one only sees two 

 chicks with "the old birds." 



