753 



IMPORTANT ADDITIONS TO THE INDIAN AVIFAUNA. 



BY 



E. C. Stuart Baker, F.L.S., F.Z.S. 



The Chinese Crimson Horned Pheasant. 

 Tragopan temmincki. 



Blanford. — Avifauna of British India, Vol. IV, p. 100. Catalogue British 

 Museum, Vol. XXII, p. 275. 



Two specimens of this magnificent pheasant which have been 

 received by the Society from Capt. G. Elliot, of the 58th Rifles, are 

 the first specimens obtained within British Indian limits. 



They were shot by Mr. W. Scott, Civil Officer of the Sadon Hill 

 Tracts, on the Panseng Pass at a height of 9,000 feet, longitude 98, 

 latitude about 25. In the letter forwarding the skins to Bombay the 

 following interesting notes are given. 



o o o 



Colours and soft parts. — " The bird had twohorns, each about 1^ 

 inch long of a light peacock blue colour and a pouch under his throat 

 3^ to 4 inches long of the same colour mottled over with reddish 

 yellow spots about |- inch in diameter." 



Call. — " One single, high note, not unlike a cat's mew." 



In the catalogue of the British Museum Ogilvie-Grant gives the 

 range of this pheasant as " South-West and Central China ; ranging 

 from the Mishmi Hills, through Sye-chuen to South Shen-si and 

 Hoo-pee." Of the five skins in the possession of the Museum there is 

 one of an adult male from the Mishmi Hills. The birds were shot at 

 the end of March and it is remarkable that at that date the horns and 

 pouch should have been at their full colour and size. I found that in 

 its near relation, Tragopan blythi, Blyth's Crimson Horned Pheasant, 

 of the Naga Hills, the size and colour of these parts did not fully 

 develope until May or early June. Dr. R. Cran reported in " Stray 

 Feathers " that he had obtained a specimen of Blyth's Tragopan from 

 the Dafla Hills ; these Hills adjoin the Mishmi Hills and it is practi- 

 cally certain that Dr. Cran's specimen must have belonged to the 

 species now under notice. 



Temminck's Tragopan appears to be extremely common on the 

 Mishmi, Dafla and Abu Hills above 8,000 feet, and in the Mishmi Ex- 



