Moonals 307 



forests trees or in summer occasionally on the ground, and, says Hume: "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." Their call is a loud, plaintive 

 whistle, which is often heard in the forest at daybreak or toward evening, occa- 

 sionally at all hours of the day ; and when it is startled into flight it utters a suc- 

 cession of shrill, screeching whistles which serve to alarm all within hearing. 

 The eggs, usually four to six in number, are deposited in a slight hollow in the 

 ground sheltered by some rock, bush, or tree-root. Attaining a length of twenty- 

 six inches, the male Moonal has the mantle shining golden green, the outer coverts 

 metallic bluish green, and the inner coverts, scapulars, rump, and upper tail- 

 coverts bronze-crimson in some lights and purple edged with metallic bluish 

 green in others, while the lower back is snow-white, the head and sides of the breast 

 metallic green shot with blue and purple ; the lower parts are black and the tail 

 pale rufous. In the northwest Himalayas this species is replaced by the Chamba 

 Moonal (L. chambanus), which differs chiefly in having the lower back golden 

 green instead of white, and the lower parts entirely glossed with metallic golden 

 green ; while in northeastern Tibet and western China occurs the largest species 

 of this genus, L'Huy's Moonal (L. I'huysii), which is similar to the common 

 species except that the feathers of the rump are metallic golden green, margined 

 with white, and the tail-feathers more or less spotted with white. The latter 

 species occurs at higher altitudes than any of the others, being found on the rocky 

 plateaus near the limit of perpetual snow, about 16,000 feet above the sea. The 

 equally splendid Sclater's Moonal (Chalcophasis sclateri}, which has been sepa- 

 rated generically on the ground of having the top of the head covered with 

 beautiful curly feathers instead of the racket-shaped ones of the others, is dis- 

 tinguished principally by having the upper tail-coverts white and the chestnut 

 tail with a wide terminal band of white. It is an extremely rare species, found 

 only in the Mishmi Hills in northeastern Assam. 



Fire-backed Pheasants. The next small group to be considered comprises 

 the Fire-backed Pheasants, which are so named from the fact that the lower 

 back in most is a fiery bronze-red or bronze-gold. The Crestless Fire-backs 

 (Acomus}, of which there are three species, ranging from the southern Malay 

 Peninsula to Sumatra and Borneo, are small Pheasants approximating twenty 

 inches in length, with a short, laterally compressed or hen-like tail, a large, 

 naked white patch on the sides of the head, and single-spurred legs. Practically 

 nothing seems to be known regarding the habits of these birds, almost the only 

 specimens being those produced by natives, though they are known to frequent 

 the dense, damp forests. In two of the species (A. erythrophthalmus and A. 

 pyronotus] the males have the general color of the plumage glossed with purplish 

 and steel-blue, while the females are entirely black, glossed like the males; but 

 in the Black-crested Fire-back (A. inornatus] of western Sumatra the males 

 resemble the females of the other species, the whole plumage being black; the 

 adult female of the latter is unknown. 



