408 PHASIANID^E. 



not far from Simla, several nests may be found within a circle of 

 a hundred yards, as if the females were, even at this season (as 

 they are at all others), more or less gregarious. 



Six is the largest number of eggs that I have known to be found 

 in any one nest, and four or five is certainly the usual number : 

 but native sportsmen talk of finding occasionally as many as a 

 dozen. 



Long ago my friend Mr. Frederic Wilson, the well-known 

 4 Mountaineer/ remarked : " The female makes her nest under a 

 small overhanging bush or tuft of grass, and lays five eggs of a 

 dull white, speckled with reddish brown. The chicks are hatched 

 about the end of May." 



He now writes to me from Griirhwal : 



" The Moonal breeds at elevations from 8000 to 12,000 feet in 

 all sorts of forest. Some begin to lay early in May, others not till 

 the end of the month. The nest is placed in much the same 

 situations as that of the Koklass that is to say, always under some 

 slight shelter, an overhanging bush or tuft of grass, or rock or 

 stone, or in the hollow at the foot of a tree, or under an old trunk, 

 It is merely a hole scraped in the ground ; but bits of grass, leaves, 

 &c., which are round it, are often dropped in, and, with some 

 feathers from the bird, form a sort of lining. Nothing is brought 

 in to make a nest either by the Moonal or, I think, any others of 

 our Hill game-birds. I have generally found five eggs in a nest, 

 sometimes only two or three, but never more than five. In a 

 small work which I lately read, 'Five weeks in the Himalayas/ 

 by Captain Matthias, the author mentions finding a Moonal's nest 

 with nine eggs ; but I fancy he must have mistaken the nest of a 

 Koklass for that of a Moonal. The eggs are about 2-75 long and 

 1'75 wide, huffish white, powdered with chocolate and in some with 

 spots and blotches of same colour. If the eggs are hatched under 

 a domestic fowl, the chicks take readily to the foster mother, but 

 often seem at a loss how to get on with her. The young broods in 

 the forest are generally found with the hen-bird only. Indeed, I 

 doubt if the Moonal pairs at all. Where they are rare, they may 

 do so ; but where numerous, I think not. For a couple of months 

 the chicks are alike in colour, and then the males begin to change 

 slightly. At four months they are easily distinguishable, though 

 they get none of the bright feathers till the second moult. Then 

 they get the full plumage of the male bird, with the exception of 

 the seventh long feather of the wing, which keeps the brown colour 

 of the hen till the third moult." 



Writing from Dhurmsala, the late Major Cock said : " The 

 Moonal breeds in May and June, and lays from five to eight eggs 

 in a hollow on the ground, either under some rock or faJlen tree, 

 or a thick rhododendron bush. The eggs vary in colour, but not 

 in shape some being spotted with broad spots, and others speckled 

 with fine specks. The eggs are very like those of the Turkey. 

 The nidification of this bird depends much on the year. In mild 

 winters, when the snow is off the ground, they begin earlier. No 



