134 A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 



of such figures. Let it be said to the credit of Wilson, the said slaughterer of 

 something under forty-five thousand Impeyans, that he was a careful observer of the 

 birds' habits, and has given us an excellent account, somewhat coloured by natives, 

 but on the whole the best we have had in the past. But it is not pleasant to 

 read of his waiting until " twenty or thirty have got up and alighted in the surrounding 

 trees and have then walked up to the different trees and fired at those I wished 

 to procure without alarming the rest, only those very close to the one fired at being 

 disturbed at each report." 



Hume's personal opinion, that in 1879 there were scores of places where one 

 might secure from ten to eighteen birds in a day, is certainly not true to-day. 

 Indeed as early as 1858 we read that ''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 specimen." The 

 same author goes on naively to tell the reader that "Among the most pleasant 

 reminiscences of bygone 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 sixty-eight Monal Pheasants," etc. 



For some unaccountable reason there is, or was for many years, a very prevalent 

 idea that the enormous number of skins which have poured into the London market 

 were from birds bred in the vicinity of Calcutta. When we remember the intense 

 heat of that low-lying city and learn from the records of the Calcutta Zoological Garden 

 that Impeyans and tragopans are even shorter lived than in Europe, the absurdity 

 of the idea is apparent. In spite of numberless inquiries throughout India, I failed 

 to learn of a single young bird ever hatched even in the high, cool hill-stations. 

 The commercial value of an Impeyan skin varied from five dollars to twenty dollars, 

 according to the number received annually. In 1876 an estimate placed the monthly 

 average of Impeyans received in London at from two to eight hundred. 



As regards the status of the Impeyan in later years, we read that at one feather 

 sale in London, in 1904, six hundred and forty-eight Impeyan skins were sold, while 

 an Indian ornithologist makes the statement that, thanks to the action of the Govern- 

 ment, no Indian species except, possibly, the Monaul Pheasant seems in danger of 

 early extinction. But, however rare it is at present, complete extinction is not yet 

 to be feared, owing to its wide range and the inaccessibility of some of its varied 

 haunts. 



As regards the flesh of the Impeyan we find many differing accounts. One 

 writer finds the birds in May not very good eating, nothing equal to the English 

 pheasant or cheer or koklass. Another says the flesh is bitter and inedible, a third 

 writes of the excellence of young birds, and a fourth that a cock was ''as tough as 

 an old shoe." My experience was that of the first mentioned. There seems no 

 doubt that the flesh varies with the season, influenced by the food — a change from 

 some ground tuber to acorns doubtless resulting in an entirely different flavour of 

 the flesh. Natives are of one opinion on the subject, judging by their readiness to 

 eat Impeyans of all ages and at any time of year. 



The methods of trapping are chiefly two : first, the low bamboo fence with 



