THE GAME BIRDS 01 INDIA. 903 



Tlie Young Male is similar to the female, but according to Beebe, 

 " very rarel}" do we fmd an individual clad in the full, 

 dull, female-like plumage, but almost always the head and 

 neck are far ahead of the body plumage. When this full 

 immature garb is attained, we find the head and neck to be 

 clad in didl brown feathers, those of the crown with few or no 

 markings, while the chin and throat are streaked with white. 

 By far the more usual plumage of the first year male is a black 

 crown more or less tinged with brown and dull red. Around 

 the neck as in melanoceijlialas we find a bright collar, dull 

 orange-crimson at the back, and usually orange-yellow across 

 the throat." 



The Chich in doivn. — Lores, crown, bright rufous-brown, chang- 

 ing to darker chestnut-brown on back and tail tuft; circle 

 round e^'^e, sides of neck and ear- coverts brighter pale fulvous ruf- 

 ous ; below pale dull fulvous ; wing-coverts like the back, quills 

 and greater coverts dark brown, mottled and barred with light 

 rufous and black. 



Distribation. — In the extreme West of its range, this form meets 

 and is found in the same area as Tragopan blythi, overlapping the 

 triTC hlytJii in the Chin Hills, and the sub-species molesicorthi in 

 South-Eastern Tibet. Thence it extends through Yunnan and the 

 Kachin Hills, Sadiya, Mishmi Hills and the Tibetan Mountains 

 Northwards through Ta-tsien-lu, Szechuan, Shensi, Hupeh, as far 

 East as the Mountains North-East of Hankow. 



The distribution as given by Beebe requires considerable exten- 

 sion to the North-West, North of the Brahmapootra River. 



Major F. M. Bailey records it as common on the Upper Dibang 

 Valley and the Tsanpo Valley. 



Mr. W. Scott was the first person to find this handsome bird 

 within our limits, obtaining a skin at Sadone. Since then numer- 

 ous other specimens have been obtained in Yunnan and in the hills 

 and mountains borderinsj Assam on the North. 



Nidification. — There is practicallj^ nothing on record about the 

 breeding of this bird in a state of nature. There are 6 eggs in the 

 British Museum from Ta-tsien-lu, said to be a single clutch, though 

 they look more like two, and any number of eggs laid in captivity. 

 I have also 3 eggs, a complete clutch, of well-incubated eggs 

 obtained throirgrh Schluter from some French missionaries taken at 

 Shensi, Peling Mountain. These were taken on the 23rd May 

 1891, I am informed, from a stick nest in a fir-tree, but I have 

 been unable to elicit any further details. 



Judging from its breeding in captivity, the season commences 

 in April, and lasts through May into early June, and the usual 

 number of eggs laid is 2 or 3, the former more often than the latter. 

 As with all other birds, a hen may be induced to lay a large 



