GALLINACEOUS BIRDS. 205 



more than from five to ten, several packs inhabiting the same hill. In summer the few which remain 

 on our side are found in single pairs generally ; but across the snow, where the great body migrate, 

 I almost always, even then, found several together. They seldom leave the hill on which they are 

 located, but fly backwards and forwards when disturbed. 



" The Jer-77ioonals, as these birds are called in India, never enter forest or jungle, and avoid 

 spots where the grass is long, or where there is underwood of any kind. It is needless to add that 

 they never perch. During the day, if the weather be fine and warm, they sit on the rocks, or rugged 

 part of the hills, without moving much about, except in the morning and evening. When it is cold 

 and cloudy, and in rainy weather, they are very brisk, and are moving about and feeding all day long. 

 When feeding they walk slowly uphill, picking up the tender blades of grass and young shoots of 

 plants, occasionally stopping to snatch up a certain bulbous root of which they seem very fond. If 

 they reach the summit of the hill, after remaining stationary for some time, they fly off to another 

 quarter, alighting some distance down, and again picking their way upwards. When walking, they 

 erect their tails, have a rather ungainly gait, and at a little distance present something the appearance 

 of a large grey Goose. They are partial to feeding on spots where the sheep have been kept at 

 nights when grazing in the summer pastures. These places have been called ' tatters ' by the 

 shepherds, and the grass on them keeps green and fresh long after the rest of the hill is dry and 

 brown. They roost on the rocks and shelves of precipices, and return to one spot many successive 

 nights. Their call is a low, soft whistling, occasionally heard at intervals throughout the day, but 

 more generally at daybreak. It is most common in cloudy weather. The first note is considerably 

 prolonged, and followed by a succession of low rapid whistles. This species has by far the most 

 agreeable song of all our game birds. This call is only heard when the bird is at rest. When 

 alarmed and walking away, it sometimes utters, at short intervals, a single low whistle, and when it 

 gets on the wing the whistles are shrill and very rapid. However far it flies, the whistles are 

 continued until it alights, and for a few seconds afterwards, but then slightly changed in tone to a 

 few notes which seem in a strange manner to express satisfaction at being again on the ground. 

 However odd the comparison, I can compare the whistiing of these birds, when fl>'ing and alighting, 

 to nothing but the different sounds produced by the \vings of a flock of Pigeons when flying, and 

 when alighting on some spot where they have to flutter a few seconds before they gain footing." 



The Jer-moonals are not remarkably wild or shy. When approached from below, on a person 

 getting \vithin eighty or one hundred yards, they move slowly uphill or slanting across, often turning to 

 look back, and do not go very far unless followed. If approached from above they fly oft' at once, 

 without walking many yards from the spot. They seldom, in any situation, walk far doMmhill, and 

 never run, except for a few yards, when about to take wing. The whole flock rise together ; their flight 

 is rapid, downwards at first, and then curving, so as to alight on the same level. AVhere the hill is open 

 and of great extent, it is often continued for upwards of a mile, at a considerable height in the air ; 

 when the space is more circumscribed, as is often the case on the hills they frequent in winter, it is 

 of shorter duration, perhaps merely across or into the next ridge. " They feed on the leaves of 

 plants and grass, and occasionally on moss, roots, and flowers ; grass forms by far the greater portion 

 of their food : they are very partial to the young blades of wheat and barley, when it is first springing 

 up, and while it remains short, and should there be an isolated patch on the hill where they are, they 

 visit it regularly night and morning. They never, however, come into what may be called the regularly 

 cultivated parts. They are generally exorbitantly fat, but the flesh is not particularly good, and it 

 has often an unpleasant flavour when the bird is killed at a high elevation, probably owing to some of 

 the plants it there feeds upon. Though I have spent many summers on the sno'\\y ranges, I never 

 found the nest or eggs, but in Thibet I often met with broods of young ones newly hatched. There 



