420 GAME-BIRDS, 



being essentials to their existence. The male Himalayan monal (X. resplendens) 

 has the crest and head metallic-green shot with blue and purple, the back and 

 sides of the neck purple shading into reddish copper and glossed with golden-green ; 

 the mantle and upper tail- coverts shining golden-green; the outer wing-coverts 

 bluish green ; the inner feathers, scapulars, and rump bronzy crimson in some 

 lights, and purple edged with bluish green in others ; the lower back snow-white i 

 the tail pale chestnut ; and the under-parts black slightly glossed with green on 

 the throat. The female has a much more sombre plumage, the general colour of 

 the upper-parts, chest, and sides of the breast being black, with a buff centre to 

 each feather, the lower back and upper tail-coverts irregularly barred with the 

 same colours, the sides of the head reddish buff mottled with black, the chin and 

 throat white, and the rest of the under-parts mottled with black and buff, and with 

 more or less distinct white shaft-stripes. The tail is black, barred with rufous and 

 tipped with white. This species ranges through the forests of the Himalaya from 

 Afghanistan to Bhutan. Mr. Hume says " there are few sights more striking 

 where birds are concerned, than that of a grand old cock shooting out horizontally 

 from the hillside just below one, glittering and flashing in the golden sunlight, a 

 gigantic rainbow-tinted gem, and then dropping stone-like, with closed wings, into 

 the abyss below." And Wilson writes that " the monal is found on almost every 

 hill of any elevation from the first great ridge above the plains to the limits of forest, 

 and in the interior it is the most abundant of our game-birds. ... In summer, when 

 the rank vegetation which springs up in the forest renders it impossible to see 

 many yards around, few are to be met with except near the summits of the great 

 ridges jutting from the snow, where morning and evening, when they come out to 

 feed, they may be seen in the open glades of the forest and on the green slopes 

 above. At that time no one would imagine they were half so numerous as they 

 really are ; but as the cold season approaches, and the rank grass and herbage die 

 away, they begin to collect together, the woods seem full of them, and in some 

 places hundreds may be put up in a day's walk. ... In autumn they all descend 

 into the forest, frequenting those parts where the ground is thickly covered with 

 decayed leaves, under which they search for grubs ; and they descend lower as 

 winter sets in and the ground becomes frozen or covered with snow. . . . Still, in 

 the severest weather, when fall after fall has covered the ground to a great depth 

 in the higher forests, many remain there the whole winter ; these are almost all 

 males, and probably old birds. In spring all in the lower parts gradually ascend 

 as the snow disappears. ... In summer they are more separated, but do not keep 

 in individual pairs, several being often found together. It may be questioned 

 whether they do pair or not in places where they are at all numerous ; if they do, 

 it would appear that the union is dissolved as soon as the female begins to sit, for 

 the male seems to pay no attention whatever to her whilst sitting, or to the young 

 brood when hatched, and is seldom found with them. The call of the monal is a 

 loud, plaintive whistle, which is often heard in the forest at daybreak or towards 

 evening, and occasionally at all hours of the day." The eggs are placed in a 

 depression in the ground scratched by the female under some sheltering rock or 

 massive root, and are usually four or five in number, and dull white speckled with 

 red. In Chamba a second species is found lacking the white lower back of the 



