304 Journal of Travel and Natural History 



we had spent the day hunting kalij, pheasants, and pea-fowl ; and now, tired and 

 weary, were enjoying the evening around the log fire, while a barking deer 

 clamoured loud in the jungle close by as if in defiant reproach for a young buck 

 which had fallen to my gun." — (P. 102.) 



This is a favourite habitat of the Impeyan pheasant or monal, 

 perhaps the most gorgeous of all birds. It is becoming rare ; and, 

 although once profusely abundant in the Western Himmalayahs, is 

 now, comparatively speaking, restricted to certain localities in the 

 wooded slopes of the higher ranges. " Whole tracts of forests, once 

 dazzling with the gorgeous forms, are now without a single 

 specimen." Knowing this, we should have liked to have read that 

 Mr Adams had been contented with a specimen or two for Natural 

 History purposes, and done his best, at least, to preserve the race 

 from the extinction which their splendid beauty is sure to bring 

 upon them sooner or later. But this does not appear to have 

 occurred to him. 



Laying the consoling unction to his soul, that " it will be long 

 before it is extirpated, for its haunts are high up among the craggy 

 rocks, where few ordinary sportsmen venture," he seems to have 

 gone at them as if he were bent on making a rival bag on a High- 

 land moor on the 12th of August. 



" The pine and oak forests of the Chor were reached on the sixth day, when, 

 to our intense delight, we soon found the pheasants far outnumbered previous 

 expectations, for the ravines resounded with their loud screams, and the higher 

 we went and the deeper we penetrated into the dense forests the more plentiful 

 they became. The cool days, cold, even frosty nights, added increased vigour 

 to our exertions. Our table actually groaned with game ; and if there is one 

 gastronomic remembrance of those days more agreeable than another, it is the 

 delight we felt on returning at nightfall with a hunter's appetite to enjoy the 

 monal cutlets, which our excellent Bengal cook prepared in what he called ' his 

 own way.' " — (P. no.) 



" One morning we happened to get into a narrow defile leading towards the 

 sunnnit of the mountain, profusely covered with ferns, balsams, dwarf bamboo 

 jungle, and long dank vegetation, through which we could scarcely pick our 

 way, much less see the great number of monal pheasants which were continually 

 arising around us. I had just discharged my gim at a ilock of upwards of 

 twenty monal, which rose in front of us, when within one hundred yards were 

 two black bears (Ursus Tibetanus) ascending a service tree in quest of fruit ; but 

 they cauglit sight of us and were off long before we could draw shot and load 

 with ball. My companion, in spite of the uncertain footing and obstacles, 

 killed ten monal in an hour." — (P. Hi.) 



As attempts are being made to introduce the Impeyan jjheasant 

 into this country, we may note one or two of the particulars which 

 Mr Adams gives of its habits and habitats. 



