586 MONAL 
Phasianidx, the Impeyan PHEASANTS of many writers, so called 
because one of them was introduced to notice by Sir Elijah and 
Lady Impey on returning from India in 1784.1 But the species 
thus made known, the true JL. impeianus, seems to have a re- 
LopHOPHORUS REFULGENS. (After Swainson.) 
stricted range in southern Cashmere (Chamba), and is not common 
in collections, a nearly allied one, LL. refulgens, which frequents 
the forests of the southern slopes of the Himalayas, from eastern 
Affghanistan to western Bhotan, being generally mistaken for 
it.2 Its habits, described by Mr. Frederic Wilson, writing in 
1848, as “Mountaineer” in The India Sporting Review (vill. pp. 
143-148), and quoted by Jerdon (Bb. Ind. ii. pp. 511-515), are 
completely those of an ordinary Pheasant, though it often shews 
a greater partiality for perching upon a tree when made to take 
wing. In some districts it seems to have been extremely numerous 
not so many years ago, but there is reason to fear that, in spite of 
the well-intended action of the Indian Government, this is not so 
now; for the cocks have been killed by thousands to meet the 
“plume” market, and their refulgent feathers are not only largely 
used by women to bedizen their persons, but also in the construc- 
tion of fans, screens and the like. The hens are fortunately 
without special adornment, and carry on their maternal duties 
comparatively unmolested in a modest attire admirably adapted 
to concealment, and in strong contrast to the brilliant hues of their 
mates, whose plumage of shining green and blue over nearly the 
1 Cuvier in 1829 (Regne Animal, ed. 2, i. p. 474), and after him Yule (Marco 
Polo, i. p. 248), believe that it was described by lian (Nat. Anim. xvi. 2), but what 
the last says of his ‘‘Great Indian Cock,” though in several respects fitting the 
Monaul, seems too vague to make this certain. Some suppose that lian took 
his information from Ctesias, but the fragments of the latter speak only (Indica, 
cap. 3) of very big Indian Cocks, a MS. at Munich reading, according to P. J. C. 
F, Bahr (Francof. a/M. : 1824, p. 269), drexrpudves ds mpoBara—cocks as big as 
sheep! Mr. M‘Crindle, in his edition of Ctesias (Bombay: 1882, p. 36, note), 
also thinks he had this bird in view, but woefully misspells its scientific name. 
2 ZL. impeianus has the lower part of the back and body generally of a golden- 
green, while in LZ. refulgens the former is white and the latter black. The correc- 
tion of the common mistake is due to Mr. Ogilvie-Grant (Cat. B. Br. Mus. xxii. p. 
278), and is the more welcome since the original species had been redescribed 
(Ibis, 1884, p. 421, pl. x.) under the new name of L. chambanus. 
