400 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
Impeyanus, in his native haunts, and it is a sight worth 
remembering. ‘T. was less fortunate on this occasion, only 
bagging one hen. Oosrao declared they would not return till 
evening, so we descended after doing justice to the breakfast we 
had brought with us. On reaching the bungalow I set to work at 
once to skin the Monauls, as Gomez was busy with the birds 
obtained yesterday, and the carcasses made a goodly stew, added 
to a foundation of Musk Deer venison and potatoes. I am told 
that this noble bird comes close to the hill-village in very severe 
weather, and the Paharries secure numbers of them in the snow. 
They are most common on the south and east aspects of the hills. 
where the vegetation is less dense than on the north and west 
slopes. Oosrao tells me they do not eat grain, like other 
Pheasants, but dig up roots and bulbs, for which their strong, 
hooked bill is well adapted. They love acorns, too, and many 
mountain fruits and berries. They have the credit of being poly- 
gamous, and they often roost on trees. 
After carefully skinning my spoils of the morning, I took my 
gun and pottered about till dinner-time. I got a couple more of 
Accentor variegatus, by far the most common of its kind in these 
parts ; a Wall Creeper, on a crag behind the stable; and a Pigmy 
Owl, Athene Brodiei, the smallest (I think) of Indian Owls. A 
number of Bats were flying about, and I knocked over two species, 
both of which were quite new to me, and proved to be Rhinolophus 
tragatus and a Scotophilus of some sort. 
Our dinner was concluded, when up the hill trudged two 
officers of H.M.’s 10th Regiment, who had been shooting big 
game in the interior, and had penetrated into Spiti. They had 
made a good bag, comprising Ovis ammon, Ibex, and Burrhel, 
besides Tahr and Serow, and what seemed to be prized as much 
as any of their trophies, a beautiful Snow Leopard, Felis uncia, 
which Capt. J. had shot at 12,000 feet, and was the first skin of 
this rare animal I ever saw. We made these travellers very 
welcome to the best fare we could produce, including the afore- 
mentioned game stew and some tinned provisions, to which they 
had long been strangers, washed down with sundry “horns of 
ale”; and I sat up a good while listening to a recital of some 
very interesting details of travel and sport. At parting next 
morning one of them presented me with a good Snow Bear’s skin, 
and the other with heads of the Tahr and of the Serow, which 
