322 Practical Bird-Keeping.


This faculty of climbing about trees renders it necessary

to take great care that no bough of a tree within the enclosure

extends to the fence, or the birds will probably escape, as they

will creep out to the end of a slender branch and spring thence

to a surprising distance. For the same reason, if kept in open

enclosures, Tragopans must be rather closely pinioned.


The only member of the group of Mouals that the amateur

is likely to admire is the magnificent Lophophorus splendens, and

it is scarcely possible to conceive anything more splendid than a

well-conditioned male bird of this species, and, fortunately, their

plumage is hard and they generally keep themselves smart.

Much that I have said about Tragopans will apply to Mouals,

especially as to variety of food. But this is a much more hardy

species, and though it is well to give shelter to the birds of the

year in their first winter, the adults can stand any reasonable

amount of cold, and if, as all wild creatures try to do, they can

avoid the combination of wind and wet, they will get through

our winters well enough.


The hen Monal makes her nest on the ground, and my

birds have laid two or three eggs. They are excellent parents

and will rear their young quite well if in an enclosure by them¬

selves where there is plenty of cover and shelter from storms.

It is a pretty sight, when the young begin to perch, to see the

parents sitting with the young between them, each spreading a

wing over the chicks ; the cock taking his full share of the

domestic duties.


Care must be taken to separate Monal cocks as the breed¬

ing season approaches. They appear heavy, rather stolid birds,

but a strong male will persecute a weaker one with great deter¬

mination, even in a large enclosure. I once missed one of two

Monal cocks which had passed the winter together quite amicably.

When we discovered the poor bird, he was several feet up a

9-inch drain, in which he had taken refuge ; but he had been

sadly maltreated and was already dead.


A cock Monal once contrived to mount nearly forty feet up

in a Beech tree. He was to be seen for quite a week on a con¬

spicuous dead branch, apparently going through a sort of display

performance. Occasionally he would crouch down on the bough



