900 JOUliNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXVI. 



Tragopan blythi — Cran, Str. Feath., x. p. 524. 



VERNACULAR NAME—Bo]i (Tibetan). 



Description — Adult Male. — Differs from Tragopan bhjthi hhjtlii iii 

 having the whole upper parts much darker in general tint, the 

 rufous spots much browner and the buff vermiculations narrower 

 and less distinct ; the white spots are smaller, though equally 

 numerous. Below, the red of the breast is confined to a compara- 

 tively narrow gorget, descending only a short way below the neck 

 on to the breast, and the whole of the rest of the lower parts are 

 much paler than in Tragoimn blythi hlythi, the pale centres of the 

 feathers hardly showing at all in contrast with the surrounding 

 parts. 



Both legs show powerful, but blunt short spurs, about 10 mm. 

 in length. 



Total length about 530 mm.; wing, 250 mm.; tail, 195 mm. ; 

 tarsus, 76 mm.; middle toe and claw, the same; bill from front 

 abo-it 19 mm. 



Female — Unknown . 



Distribution. — The type of this sub-species was obtained by 

 Capt. Molesworth, after whom it is named, at the Tse-La, 

 Tawang, Tibet, in the mountains due North of the Dibrugarh 

 District of Assam, rather further East than the point shown in 

 Beebe's map of the Tragopan 's distribution. 



It is probable that it extends along the mountains at from 

 6,000 to 10,000 or 12,000 feet, from Bhutan to the Brahmapootra 

 on the East, forming a Northern race of bli/thi, and divided from 

 it on the South and East by that river. The bird obtained by 

 Cran from the Datla Hills and recorded in " Stray Feathers "' must 

 have been this sub-species, and officers and others of the Mishmi 

 Expeditions of 1911-12 frequently came across a Tragopan which 

 must also have been the same. 



Nidijication. — Nothing known . 



General Habits. — As far as we know at present, the Tibetan 

 Tragopan inhabits much the same country and forest as its nearest 

 relations. Molesworth obtained it at about 8,000 feet, and in the 

 Mishmi Hills it was seen at about 9,000 to 10,000 feet on several 

 occasions. It is, perhaps, a bird of higher altitudes than the 

 Grey-bellied Tragopan, for the Abors told me that it never came 

 below a ridge of hills running well over 7,000 feet, and they said 

 that Sclater's Monal and this Tragopan inhabited the same 

 forests and the one came no lower down than the other. 



Colonel J. Chatterton came across them more than once, and told 

 me that though they kept to the thickest undergrowth, and were 

 very hard to get a glimpse of, they were not shy, but would 

 continue to feed and scratch about within a few yards of one almost 

 immediately after they had been first disturbed. 



