WESTERN TRAGOPAN 67 



the Kattor and Bhilling Rivers marks its oriental limit. From here it is found along 

 most of the middle wooded ranges of the Himalayas to the north-west, well into 

 Kashmir. The great sweep which the Indus River makes in this border state marks 

 the eastern boundary of this Tragopan, as far as we know at present. Within this 

 fluviatile curve it has been recorded from Hazara on the east and from Laddakh in the 

 north. It lives at about the same altitudes as the satyr tragopan. It has recently 

 become very rare in most parts of Kashmir, but occurs in Poonch and Kistwar. 



GENERAL ACCOUNT 



Several score of years ago Mr. Wilson published an account of the habits of the 

 Western Tragopan, or " Jewar," as he called it, a more intimate and complete history 

 than any later record. In fact, in the intervening years but little has been added to our 

 knowledge of the life history of this bird. I shall give his account and follow it with 

 the observations I was able to make. 



" Except where an isolated village is situated high up in a densely wooded locality 

 and surrounded by thick forest, the Jewar is seldom or never found near the habitations 

 of man, but frequents the darkest and most solitary parts of the woods, where it is not 

 often subject to disturbance ; and keeps so still and secluded in their shady recesses, 

 that not one in twenty of the inhabitants of the nearest villages ever sees one, except 

 when caught or killed by a shikari. 



" In autumn and winter its haunts are in the thickest parts of the forests of oak, 

 chestnut and morenda pine, where the box tree is abundant, and where, under the forest 

 trees, a luxuriant growth of 'ringal,' or hill bamboo, forms an underwood in some places 

 almost impenetrable. 



"They keep in companies of from two or three to ten or a dozen, not in compact 

 flocks, but scattered widely over a considerable space of forest, so that many at times 

 get quite separated, and are found alone. 



" In places where seldom disturbed, the whole lot are sometimes found within a 

 compass of twenty or thirty yards, while, where often subject to intrusion, they get 

 scattered and keep in ones and twos in different quarters of the forest, but if left 

 undisturbed for a week or two, they will again collect together. They seldom forsake 

 entirely a regular resort, however much disturbed, but get so shy and wary that it is 

 very difficult to find, and almost impossible to shoot them. Here they pass the winter 

 months, seldom wandering away from the particular quarter they have chosen for a 

 resort, to which they return year after year ; and while there located, if not disturbed, 

 never leave it to any distance, though many other parts of the wood are exactly of the 

 same character. 



'' If several lots are in the forest, each lot appears to have its own favourite quarter, 

 and never intermingles with the others. 



" The trees furnishing them with a sufficiency of food, though the ground be 

 covered with snow many feet in depth, the severest storms do not, speaking of the 

 species generally, cause them to change their locality. After a severe fall of snow, 

 a few occasionally leave for a time their usual haunts, if in a very bleak quarter, or at 

 any considerable elevation, and are found in places widely differing, as small patches of 



