TUE a A ME lilRD^ OF IAD I A. 535 



•' in Naiiii Tal told me that he also was aware of similar 



'• iustauces. 



" I once had the pleasure of seeing a hen Koklas knocked 



•' over in full flight b}' a tS}>v:ivtus nepalensis, the Crested Eagle ; 



" I ran up and caught her, and after a short while let her go, 



'• when she ran oil' as if nothing had happened." 

 The Koklas feeds on all kinds of grain, grass seeds, acorus, 

 berries and buds, and also upon insects, worms, etc., though it is 

 probably more of a vegetai'ian than insectivorous feeder on the 

 whole. Mr. Wilson says that it feeds principally on leaves and 

 buds, and that owing to its disinclination to a restricted diet of 

 grain, is harder to rear in capacity than either the Cheer or 

 Monal. 



PUCKASIA MACROLOPHA BIDDULPHI. 



The Kashmir KoJdas. 



Pucrasia macrolopha. — Adams, (nee. Less.) P. Z. S. 1859, p. 186 (Cash- 

 mere) ; Gates iu Hume's N. and E , 2nd ed. iii, p. 411 (1890) (part, Cash- 

 mere) ; Blanf. Fauu. Brit. lad., iv., p. 84 (1898) (part, Cashmere) ; 

 Magrath, Jour. B. N. H. S., xviii, p. 298 (1908) (Thandiani). 



Fucrasia b{ddid2)fii.— Marshall, Ibis, 1879, p. 461 ; Id. J. F. O., 1879, 

 p. 424 ; Id. Str. Feath., viii, p. 445 (1879) ; Gates, Man. Game-B. I., i, 

 p. 318 (1898). 



Pucrasia macrolopha hiddulphi. — Ggilvie-Grant, Cat. Birds B. M., xxii, 

 p. 313 (1893) (Cashmere and Gilgit), id. Man. Game-B., i, p. 284 (1895) ; 

 Beebe, Zoologica 1, No. 15, pp. 273-279 (1914) ; Ward, J. Bomb. N. H. 

 Soc, xvii, p. 944 (1907) (Cashmere and Jammu). 



Vernacular Names. — Plas, (Kashmir) ; Kukrola, (Chamha). 



Descrii^tion — Adult Male. — Differs from true P. m. macrolojjlia in 

 being slightly darker above and in having the chestnut on the 

 foreneck extended to the hindneck. Below, the chestnut is much 

 darker and more mixed with black, whilst the feathers of the 

 upper breast often have very narrow margin of black, which give 

 this part of the plumage a still darker appearance. 



Colours of the soft jmrts. — As in /*. m. macrolopha. 



Measurements. — I have been able to examine only a small series 

 of this form of Koklas, but the average dimensions work out to 

 much the same as in the Common Koklas. 



The type (British Museum) has a wing of 9-2" (233-6 mm.) with 

 a rather short tail of only 9" (2 2b- 6 mm.), but another specimen from 

 Kashmir has a tail of 9-8" (249-0 mm.) and doubtless a big series 

 would show as great a range of variation as does P. m. Tnacrolojpha. 



Adult Female. — As a rule, the females of the Common Koklas 

 have the outer tail feathers much mixed rufous and black, but the 

 general trend of the marking is to follow the contour of the feather so 

 that it is longitudinal in character. In the Kashmir bird the black 

 generally forms bai-s except on the outermost pair. The bars are 



