216 INDIAN SPORTING BIRDS 



Monauls breed iu late spring, the hen making a "scrape" 

 under a root or rock, and laying seldom more than five eggs ; 

 they can be first found in May, and may easily be mistaken for 

 those of a turkey, but are slightly larger than the eggs laid by 

 Indian turkeys at any rate. 



The native name Munal, with the feminine Munali, is especi- 

 ally used in the Central Himalayas ; in Kulu the male is distin- 

 guished as Nil and the female as Karari ; in Kashmir the sex- 

 appellations are Lont for the cock and Hami for the hen ; Bat- 

 nal and liatkap are used in the North-west Himalayas, while the 

 Lepchas and Bhutias call the bird Fo-dong and Cham-dong 

 respectively, and Dafia is the name in Nepal, recalling the term 

 Datiya in Kumaun and Garhwal. 



There is a certain tendency to variation in the plumage of the 

 male monaul, and in some cases this has led to some unsatisfac- 

 tory species being named ; a form with blue instead of copper- 

 red on the neck has been called Lopliophorus mantoiii, and in 

 several books a variety is called the Bronze-backed Monaul, 

 and credited with being the true Lopliopliorus impeyanus, whereas 

 it always used to be supposed that it was the typical form which 

 was named after Impey. This variety, for I personally cannot 

 swallow it as a species, and natives say it is only a casual 

 variation, has only been found in Chamba, where the common 

 form is well known. It is distinguished from this bird by having 

 much more metallic gloss on the plumage, there being no white 

 patch on the back, but purple all the way down, while the 

 green of the throat spreads all over the under-parts, which are 

 intense velvet-black in the typical bird. As no hens ever turn 

 up, and as birds only differing in colour invariably interbreed and 

 do not themselves recognize a difference of species, I really think 

 naturalists have been too much in a hurry in giving specific rank 

 to this freak ; for it so happens that the pheasant family are 

 particularly apt to produce well-marked and natural-looking 

 colour-variations, of which the black-winged peacock, also once 

 ranked as a species, is a striking example.' 



' Since writing the above, I find that Mr. C. W. Beebe has published 

 (Zoologica, vol. i. p. 272) his conviction that the Chauiba monaul is "unques- 

 tionably a mutation, sport, or abnormal variation.'' 



