530 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HLST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXV. 



One cauuot get bags of 20 and 30 couple as one can of the 

 Jnnglef'owl and the Kalij Pheasants, but there can be no denying 

 the fact that in sporting appearance the latter birds cannot 

 compete with the Koklas, handsome though thej' may be in their 

 own way. 



The Ibllowing account of a Koklas shoot written by a friend 

 who desires to remain anonymous gives a good description of the 

 bird, its haunts and the sport it gives under favourable circumstances. 

 He writes : — 



** R., an old hand at the game, who has worked Murree and 

 " its Galis, both ornithologically and oologicallj'- for many 

 " years with great success, had put me up to all the ropes 

 '' about the Koklas before I paid my visit to the Hills, so that 

 " A. and I came up to this giddy whirlpool of Indian Society 

 " determined to have at least a couple of days' shoot before we 

 " went down again to perspire in the Plains. Our first day's 

 " shoot was not a success, as we only had three shots and 

 " got but one bird, so I will not descant on it here. The 

 " second time out, however, we were much more successful — 

 "shot between lis a dozen birds, which 1 think may be consi- 

 " dered a good bag nowadaj'S anywhere close to the better 

 " known Galis. 



" It was getting late in February, but the cocks had not 

 " started crowing as regTilarly and as often in the morning as 

 " is their wont later on in the season, but our ' Shiliari ' 

 " Jowala, had marked down for us at least half a dozen places 

 " in which he had seen or heard cocks crowing and half a dozen 

 " more in which he thought there were birds. 



" Starting as soon as we could see our way from the rest- 

 " bungalow, we were soon at the first spot where he hoped to 

 " pick up a bird, and where indeed the previous evening we 

 " had ourselves heard the ringing ' pok-pok-pokras ' crow of 

 " an old cock as he retired to rest. 



" We had three good dogs with us, half-bred cockers, two 

 "of which had been lent to us by a man who had shot over 

 " them in the country we proposed to shoot, and as soon as we 

 " arrived in good positions we sent the dogs in. The ravine 

 " was a deep and verj' broken one, covered with rather thinly 

 " scattered oak and other trees, but with lots of bracken and 

 " other undergrowth, and with banks rising rather steeply to 

 "some 2 or 3 hundred feet on either side. Starting at the 

 "lowest end of the ravine A. took one side and I the other, 

 " working along about 50 yards apart, and some 20 j^ards up 

 " the hillside from the bottom of the ravine. We were very 

 " soon on to some birds, and could hear them scuttling through 

 " the dry Tindergrowth in front of one of the cockers before, 



