344 A CONTRIBUTION TO THE ORNITHOLOGY OF HEPAL. 



was disposed to doubt the distinctness of the two forms, and he 

 was led to this opinion from an examination of the figure of 

 the bird only ; for he had no opportunity of examining" a speci- 

 men of the true nipalensis. In the appendix to the " Birds of 

 India/' however, he noted that Blyth considered P. nipalensis 

 apparently a gfood species. 



In the B. M. Catalogue of Mr. Hodgson's collection (1846, 

 p. 126j Pticrasia macrolopha is entered, but in the second edi- 

 tion of that Catalogue 863, p. 68), Hodgson's specimens of 

 Pukras are called Pucrasia duvancelli, and P. nipalensis, Gould, 

 is added as a synomyn. Mr. Hodgson does not seem to have 

 bestowed any name of his own on the Nepal Pukras, and it 

 is to be presumed that he considered his bird the same as 

 macrolopha, Lesson. 



In the beginning of 1877 Mr. Hume ui'ged me to procure 

 specimens of the Nepal Pukras, in order that the question of 

 its identity with, or distinctness from, macrolopha might be 

 definitely settled. This proved no easy task, as the bird does 

 not occur in any part of the hills so far to the east as the 

 valley of Nepal, though not uncommon in the western portion 

 of the Nepal Himalaya. However, after waiting for some six 

 or seven months, I received the seven birds whose measurements 

 are here entered, from Jumla in Western Nepal, through the 

 kindness of my friend General Umber Jung, a nephew of the 

 late Sir Jung Bahadur. Three other specimens were subse- 

 quently seen in confinement in the valley, and these also had 

 been brought from Jumla. 



Unfortunately I can give no details about the habits of this 

 Pheasant from personal observation ; it is said to be plentiful 

 about Jumla where it is found not far from the snows. In 

 confinement the birds became very tame and seemed to prefer 

 green leaves and shoots, &c., to grain, for food. 



There can be no doubt that Pucrasia nipalensis is thoroughly 

 distinct from P. macrolopha; the former is a smaller bird, 

 darker, and much more richly coloured than the common 

 Pukras. Although Mr. Gould has said all that is necessary on 

 this point, it may be worth while again to draw attention to the 

 characters by which the two species may be at once distin- 

 guished. 



In macrolopha the male bird has the body above, the sides 

 of neck and breast, and the flanks, light ashy with a narrow 

 black stripe down the centre of the feathers, including the 

 shaft ; in nipalensis the feathers of the corresponding parts are 

 velvet black, narrowly fringed at their margins with grey, 

 while the shafts of the feathers are either white with a line of 

 chestnut on each side, or wholly chestnut. 



