(GASBE.) 
also under tail-coverts. This is what might be called a rough esti- 
mate of colour found on this pheasant. Legs are coral red ; orbits 
bright red ; head crested ; tail shortish, of fourteen feathers. We 
previously observed pheasants with 18 tail feathers. Pukras and 
Kalij have 16. Green Blood Pheasant from its size, habits and 
peculiarities of structure may be considered as a link between phea- 
sants and partridges. Cruentus has hitherto only been found on the 
higher altitudes, and has a restricted area of distribution chiefly 
KE. Nepal and Sikkim 10,000 to 13,000 feet elevation. 
GENUS GALLOPHASIA, are allied more or less to jungle-fowl. 
They frequent altitudes from 4,000 to 7,000 feet. Head is crested ; 
orbits red; longish hackles on breast and neck ; plumage is glossy 
black and white, streaked. Tail of these pheasants, of 16 feathers 
like jungle-fowls, longish, a bit convex, raised in the centre. Though 
they keep much to denser parts of forests, where they roost, at 
dawn they go far afield to forage. They are often raised or 
“started” in more open country, when they fly well and make for 
the nearest jungle. ‘They often enter fields of hill crofters to forage, 
more on tender shoots than the grain. Ravines and hollows on the 
hills, they seem to prefer. 
(811) GALLOPHASIS MELANOTUS, Sikkim Kalij Pheasant. This 
pheasant ean generally be found in thick jungle a little way out of 
Darjeeling. It is getting more difficult to find, of late years owing 
to the way these birds have been knocked about. On more than 
one occasion I startled a solitary bird in Birch hill forest. They are 
however more at home, on Ghoompahar range, where they breed and 
are frequently observed, in short scrub jungle and bare slopes of the 
hill, at outskirts of forests. Kalij is 27 inches in length ; bill horny 
yellow ; orbitar skin red ; irides brown ; plumage of male, above, is 
glossy black ; breast hackles are long tinged with white and ash ; 
beneath, feathers are white ; abdomen, vent and under tail-coverts, 
brownish black. This bird differs in colour from Kalij, found on 
western side of Himalayas, also species, in the further east—Assam 
and Tipperah. JJelanotus is more glossy black above, and lacks the 
white crest of the former species, and the white lower back plumage 
of the eastern bird. Melanotus when startled or disturbed has a 
shrill call resembling hoorchee-koorchee, which sounds like a warning 
to its hens to look out, at other times a more satisfied and reassuring 
call of koorook-koorook-loorook. The Kalij seldom ascends over 
8,000 feet. 
