BIRDS. 197 



foot in length and 1^ lbs. in weight. It is quite a fruit-eater, and 

 keeps to the forest-clad parts. The bronze-winged dove is a lovely 

 creature. It is of shy, solitary habits, but may often be seen feeding 

 on the road under deep shade on suddenly rounding a turn. Most 

 of the pigeons are good eating. 



Sikhim is but a poor country for sport, although at least 14 species 

 of game birds are to be found in it by the patient and persevering 

 sportsman, between the Rungeet river and the perpetual snows, but 

 none of them can be called very abundant, and many are difficult 

 to find. There are 4 pheasants, 3 quails, 2 hill-partridges, a jungle 

 fowl, woodcock, a snow-cock, a snow-partridge, and a crake. The 

 moonal, Lophophonis impeyaniis, the largest and handsomest of the 

 Sikhim pheasants, rarely descends below 10,000 feet. An adult male 

 weighs up to 5 J lbs. and is 28 inches long. It has a peacock-like crest, 

 and its prevailing colour above is bronze-green glossed with gold ; 

 below is black, and the tail is cinnamon-red. The female is wholly 

 brown, with a white chin and throat. The blood-pheasant, Ithagenes 

 cruentus, frequents the same zone. It is a small bird, adult males of 

 it usually weighing under Ij lbs. and measuring 18 inches in length. 

 They are greyish coloured on the back and greenish below, with 

 blood-red streaks on the breast, and the under-tail-coverts are also 

 blood-red. The cere, legs, and spurs are crimson. The female is 

 reddish-brown finely mottled with black. Ceriornis satyra, the Indian 

 crimson tragopan, is usually found between 8,000 and 10,000 feet, 

 but sometimes descends in winter to below 7,000 in search of the fruit 

 of Arisoema, a large arum, its favourite food. The male is rich 

 crimson below, with black-edged white ocelli on the breast and flanks. 

 The most conspicuous marks about it when alive are the orbital regions, 

 erectile horns, and dilatable skin about the throat, which are of a fine 

 blue, but the colour fades after death. It weighs from 3g to 4| lbs. 

 and measures 28 inches in length. The hen is brown, with a few of 

 the feathers white-shafted. The kalij of the Nepalese, Euplocamus 

 albonotatus, is the commonest of the Sikhim pheasants, and has the 

 greatest range, being found from the lowest valleys up to 6,000 feet. 

 The male is about 2 feet in length, and from 2j to 2f lbs. in weight. 

 It is bluish-black above, with a long slender crest of the same colour 

 and whitish below. The hen is brownish. Gallus ferrurjineus, the red 

 jungle-fowl, is also found from the bottoms of the lowest valleys, but 

 rarely ascends higher than 4,500 feet. The male closely resembles 

 the ordinary gamecock, and measures up to 28 inches in length and 

 weighs from If to 2j lbs. The woodcock is a cold-weather visitor 

 only, and is then to be found from about 3,000 feet upwards. The 

 snow-cock and snow-partridge, as their names imply, frequent the 

 snowy regions, and the quails and crake the zone lying between 

 3,000 and 6,000 feet. 



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