SPORTING RAMBLES ROUND ABOUT SIMLA. 59 



that neighbourhood. If you must havo big bags, you will almost 



certainly bo disappointed ; if you are content with a grand day's 



walk and a moderate bag, hardly and honestly won, you need 



scarcely ever be so ; and, of course, it is to the pheasants that you 



will chiefly look to provide you with your amusement and fill your 



larder. Wherever there are trees or even bushes, though it be on 



the very roadside, you feel you are not quite safe from one or other 



of that game and handsome family. The pheasants that you may 



expect to meet at this season of the year are practically four only, 



unless, indeed, you go somewhat further afield than I am now 



contemplating your doing. These are the monal (Laphophorus 



impegamus), the kokiass or pukras (Pucrasia macrolopha), the cheer 



(Phasianus wallichi), and the white-crested kalij (Euphocanus 



albocristatits). The handsome jewar or so-called " Argus Pheasant" 



of that region (Ceriornis melanoscep/tala) , one of the tragopans (we 



had a live specimen in these rooms lately), is still, I believe, to bo 



met with in the higher regions of forest, somewhat more remote 



from Simla, but not except quite as an exception within the regions 



I am now considering. It is a shy bird apparently, of somewhat 



meditative, if not gloomy disposition, favouring the darkest depths 



of the remotest forests. Yet curiously, as pointed out by more 



than one writer on the subject, it seems to be the most easily tamed 



of all the Hymalayan pheasants ; while the kalij, which in its wild 



state seems scarcely happy far away from the sound of the human 



voice, is the most difficult. 



The moonal and the kokiass, and specially the former, are dis- 

 tinctly forest birds, loving the dark dense forests of deodar, juniper, 

 and yew, while the oheer and the kalij prefer somewhat more open 

 ground interspersed with woods of pine oak and rhododendron, with 

 a thick undergrowth of bushes, ferns and grasses. The moonal I 

 have not found at a much lower elevation than 7,000 feet; tho 

 kokiass seldom below 6,000 feet ; from 5,000 or lower to 7,000 

 seems to be the favourite regio?! of the cheer and the kalij. Though 

 all four birds are now, I believe, universally regarded as pheasants, 

 you will see from the specimens I have before me that they differ 

 from one another very considerably in character. There is no 

 mistaking the cheer with his typically long tail for anything else 

 than a pheasant. A cock cheer in form and feature, though not iu 

 colour, differs very slightly from the cock pheasant of our English 

 covers, and is about the same weight, say 3^ lbs. The kokiass is 



