500 



219. PUCRASIA MACROLOPHA (LeSSOll). 



Local names, Coclass, Pocrass, Plach. 



Is seldom found at any elevation under 5000 feet on the Western 

 Himalayas ; nowhere very common. On the Choor Mountain, near 

 Simla, it is plentiful, and frequently found in the same jungles with 

 the last two species : more solitary in its habits than eithei* of the 

 other two, and usually seen single or in pairs. Its call is composed 

 of a few chuckles or low chattering sounds ; the males crow at day- 

 break ; the call resembles that of a young domestic cock. Roosts 

 in trees. Food various, composed of leaves, buds, roots, insects, 

 seeds and acorns. The eggs are spotted like a Turkey's. 



Note. — The Plach Pheasant, so common in the jungles of the 

 Cashmere Ranges, I have not examined, but am inclined to think it 

 is a different species ; its crow is different. 



220. Lophophorus impeyanus (Latham). 



The local names for this species are very various. The Cash- 

 merees call the male " Lont," and the female " Ham." On the 

 ranges around Mussouree the natives call the male " Ghur Monal," 

 the female " Ratteeah Cowan" and '" Monalee." 



This splendid bird, once so abundant on the Western Himalayas, 

 is now far from being so, in consequence of the numbers killed by 

 sportsmen on account of its beauty ; whole tracts of mountain forest 

 once frequented by the Monal are now almost without a single spe- 

 cimen : however, its range is wide, and its haunts varied, so that it 

 will be long before the species can be entirely exterminated. The 

 Monal frequents the high regions of the Western Ranges, and lives 

 among the oak forests, dense bamboo jungles, or craggy mountain- 

 sides. Its favourite food consists of roots and bulbs, particularly 

 the wild strawberry, currant, earth-nuts, acorns, &c. Its eggs are a 

 little less than a Turkey's, and similarly marked. The average 

 weight of adult males is 6 lbs. ; that of the females 5 lbs. : the 

 young birds resemble the female until the first moult. Monal-shoot- 

 ing far eclipses anything of the sort, British or European ; it calls 

 forth all the energies of the sportsman. Scrambling over precipices, 

 mounting over wooded slopes, or threading his way through tangled 

 bush, these noble birds spring up before him, uttering their wild cry 

 as they dash down the glens, refulgent in all their beauty and ele- 

 gance of form. Among the most pleasant reminiscences of by -gone 

 days is a period of eleven days spent by the author and a friend on 

 the Choor Mountain, near Simla, when among other trophies were 

 numbered 68 Monal Pheasants, 9 Plach, 4 Kallege, 1 Wood Part- 

 ridge, Chuckor (P. chukar), and Solitary Snipe. The Bearded Vul- 

 ture and Pine Martin (M. jlavigula) are the greatest enemies of the 

 Monal : the former kills the old birds ; the latter destroys the eggs 

 and young. 



