214 INDIAN SPORTING BIRDS 



spite of the brilliant colours and peacock-like crest of the male, 

 which have given him the name of Nil-mor and Jungli-mor in 

 Kashmir, there is something very partridge-like about the bird, 

 and to call him the Impeyan PJieasant, as is often done, is rather 

 an abuse of terms, for, although a member of the pheasant 

 family, he is no more a pheasant than he is a jungle fowl or a 

 peacock, but, with his few relatives, stands alone as a type. 



The hen, in her mottled-brown plumage, is just like a giant 

 partridge ; her only distinctive marks are the bare blue eye- 

 patch she shares with the cock, and the pure white of the 

 throat. Yearling cocks may be at once picked out on the wing 

 by the patch of plain buff which foreshadows the snow-white 

 escutcheon they will bear when in full plumage, which is not till 

 next year, and even second-year birds have the seventh quill 

 brown. The monaul is a heavy, bulky bird, weighing about 

 four and a half pounds in the case of the cock, the hen being 

 about half a pound less. It carries a great amount of breast- 

 meat, and tastes much like a turkey, at any rate during autumn 

 and winter ; the thigh sinews run to bone, and need drawing like 

 a turkey's. The monaul is confined to the Himalayas, and is 

 seldom found lower than .5,000 feet even in winter, while 

 in summer it ranges up to the forest limit and even above it, 

 some old males climbing nearly to the snow-line. However, it is, 

 generally speaking, a forest bird, and so usually roosts in trees at 

 night, besides often alighting on them in the day-time when 

 disturbed. 



It is a strong-flying wary bird, more of a flyer than a runner, 

 and quite ready to cross a wide valley on the wing when sur- 

 prised. Its call, which is somewhat like that of the peewit 

 at home, but a whistled instead of a mewing call, is a source 

 of annoyance to sportsmen after big game in the heights, for of 

 course the beasts attend to the warning. Both cock and hen 

 call similarly, and the note is quite unlike that of any other of 

 our game-birds. 



Monaul are, like the family generally, mixed feeders, but they 

 specialize on underground food — roots and grubs — and hoe these 

 up with their powerful bills : they rarely scratch like the phea- 

 sants and fowls, being able to do the work of unearthing food 



