THE KALIJ PHEASANTS. 259 



with dirty white, and the lower back and rump more widely 

 margined with pure white ; fore-neck and chest dirty white, 

 shading into whitish-brown on the rest of the under-parts, all 

 the feathers of which are long and pointed. Total length, 

 25 inches; wing, 9-3; tail, 11 ; tarsus, 3. 



Adult Female. — A long brownish-grey hairy crest ; general 

 colour of the rest of the plumage reddish-brown, brighter on the 

 rump and under-parts ; the upper-parts finely mottled with 

 black and edged with grey, the wing-coverts and under-parts 

 with white; under-parts with 7vhite shafts^ never pale shaft- 

 stripes ; throat and middle of belly dirty white ; outer tail- 

 feathers black. Total length, 22*5 inches ; wing, S'S ; tail, 8-8 ; 

 tarsus, 2*5. 



Range. — The lower and middle ranges of the Western Hima- 

 layas, from Hazara to Nepal and Western Kumaon. 



Habits. — According to Mr. Hume the White-crested Kalij 

 is found "throughout the fairly wooded lower and middle 

 ranges of the Himalayas, from Kumaun to Hazara, here 

 sparingly, there abundantly, according to season and a variety 

 of other more or less potential influences." 



The late Mr. Frederic Wilson says : ** This well-known 

 Kalij is most abundant in the lower regions ; it is common in 

 the Dhiin at the foot of the hills, in all the lower valleys, and 

 everywhere to an elevation of about 8,000 feet : from this it 

 becomes more rare, though a few are found still higher. . . 



" In the lower regions it is found in every description of 

 forest, from the foot to the summit of the hills ; but it is most 

 partinl to low coppice and jungle, and wooded ravines or 

 hollows. In the interior it frequents the scattered jungle at the 

 borders of the dense forests, thickets near old deserted patches 

 of cultivation, old cowsheds and the like, coppices near vil- 

 lages and roads, and, in fact, forests and jungle of every kind, 

 except the distant and remoter woods, in which it is seldom 

 found. The presence of man, or some trace that he has once 



s 2 



