158 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST, SOCIETY, Vol. XXVIII, 
The cheer is widely distributed in Garhwal, but is very seldom indeed found 
in any numbers. Its favourite haunts being steep grassy slopes from 5,000’ to 
8,000’ elevation, and ground of this description apparently well suited to cheer 
occurring over very large areas, I have often wondered why this bird should not 
become more numerous. I am inclined to the belief that annual forest fires, which 
usually occur just about the time these birds are breeding, must be the principal 
check to their further increase, and I believe that this fine pheasant will become 
very much more plentiful now that large areas of chir pine forests are yearly 
closed to fire by the Forest Department to enable the forests to be successfully 
regenerated. Blanford’s distribution of this bird is distinctly misleading so 
far as Garhwal is concerned. They are quite as common in the interior valleys 
as they are in the outer hills, in fact more so ; for they even penetrate up the 
Dhauli valley as far as its junction with the Rishi Ganga, and are also not un- 
common along the Vishnu Ganga. Wilson’s description of this bird as quoted 
by Stuart Baker in his work which is now appearing in this Journal seems to me 
extremely good, and I am inclined to agree with Wilson when he says that the 
cheer generally roosts on the ground, as I have spent some time trying to discover 
their habits in this respect. Nothing is more characteristic of this bird than the 
way it invariably calls at daybreak and again at dusk as mentioned by Wilson, 
and the early morning call is often made when it is still too dark to perceive 
objects more than a dozen yards away. I have also once heard these birds 
continue calling for about ten minutes at midnight. The marked predilection 
these birds exhibit for running away up—hill instead of taking to their wings to 
escape danger was well shown on one occasion when several cheer started up 
only 4 or 5 yards away from my feet on an open burned grassy area and immedi- 
ately sought safety by running away up the hillside without making any attempt 
to fly. 
Genneus albocristatus (1336).—The White-crested Kalij Pheasant. 
The kalij is by far the commonest pheasant throughout Garhwal in all forests 
below 8,000’ except such open grassy slopes as are especially adapted to the cheer. 
It is found up the Dhauli valley leading to Tibet at least as far as its junction 
with the Vishnu Ganga, and possibly further, though I have no actual record of 
its occurrence further north than this. On several occasions I have examined the 
crops of these pheasants, and besides many kinds of roots which were seldom iden- 
tifiable for certain I have found the following : Banj acorns with the outer husk 
removed, the ripe fruit of Pyrus Pashia, the green stems of Viscum japonicum, 
pods of Desmodium tiliefolium, bulbils of species of Dioscorea, ripe fruits of Rosa 
moschata and the ripe seeds of Nycianthes arbortristis. In most cases the food is 
quite clean and free from suspicion, though I regret to have to record that in the 
vicinity of travellers’ paraos and human habitations this is by no means always 
the case. 
Lophophorus refulgens (1342).—The Monal. 
As indicated in Stuart Baker’s work which is now appearing in this Journal 
the monal is still tolerably common in parts of British Garhwal. In the Dudatoli 
forest and along the Dhanpur ridge in central Garhwal monal are still to be found, 
but they are scarce, and it is not till one reaches the spurs which diverge directly 
from the main snowy range that they become at all abundant. Along the Dhauli 
valley leading to the Niti pass I have seen them as far as the village of Malari, but 
not north of this. Blanford and Stuart Baker both state that monal are found up 
to 15,000’ during the breeding season, but I have never seen them above 13,000’ 
in Garhwal and I much doubt if they ever wander in Garhwal above this eleva- 
tion. It must be remembered that the tree limit in Garhwal usually lies between 
11,000’ and 12,000’, whilst in the eastern Himalaya I believe it is not less than 
12,000’ and as the monal is really a forest bird this fact would be quite sufficient 
to make a difference of 2,000’ in the maximum height at which the birds are to 
be found. Stuart Baker says that in summer time they are generally to be found 
