420 GAME-BIRDS. 
being essentials to their existence. The male Himalayan monal (LZ. 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 : 
the tail pale chestnut; and the under-parts black shghtly 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, glittermg 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 eall 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 
