1882.] Notes of a trip from Simla to the Spili Valley. 485 



every year in winter time, as proved by the number of horns which 

 ornament the piles of stones near many of the villages. In Spiti 

 the Burrel horns are common, but I only noticed horns of the Ibex 

 in the Peen valley. 



One reason perhaps of my meeting with no game, was from my 

 not going after it, and rarely halting in the same place two consecu- 

 tive days. Yet traversing unfrequented mountains as I did, without 

 hj chance meeting anything, proves the great scarcity of animals, and 

 similar complaints I have heard made by others. The best shooting 

 in fact about Simla may be had along the road. Pheasants being 

 plentiful and Chakor also all the way to Saraon, the farthest Bun- 

 galow as yet completed ; five sorts in all being pi-ocurable, viz., 1st, the 

 JVlonal, LopJiopJio/rws Impeyanus, Latham ; 2nd, the Argus, Ceriomis 

 melcmocepJiala, Gray ; 3rd, the Koklas, Puchrasia Macrolopha, Lesson ; 

 4th, Kalij, Euplocomus albocristatus, Vigors ; and 5th, the Cheer, 

 JPhasianus Wallicliii, Hardwicke, the last only being a true phea- 

 sant, and perhaps the least attractive of the lot. No painting can 

 do justice to the gorgeous beauty of the Monal, the cock of which 

 is resplendent with burnished azure with a golden irridescence, such 

 as the bird of Juno can only rival in the Old World, or those winged 

 gems, the true humming birds, surpass in the New. A handsomer bird, 

 however, in my opinion is the cock Argus with, when living, its 

 superbly coloured gular sack and head lappets and the beautiful con- 

 trast which its white spots of unsullied purity form with the rich 

 warm tints of the body plumage. The koklas and kalij are both 

 also eminently handsome birds, th.,t is the cocks in their spring 

 plumage ; the hens of all being more sombre-coloured and less attrac- 

 tive.* 



No person starting for the interior should omit a few articles to 

 enable him to preserve any object of interest he may meet with, such 

 as a pot of arsenical soap, four or five broad mouthed stone jars filled 

 with spirits of wine and well corked (good corks are far preferable to 

 glass stoppers) to receive snakes, bats, &c, and a few small glass 



* Any person desirous of procuring skins or other objects of Natural History, 

 can do so by addressing A. P. Begbie, Esq., Simla, as that gentleman has many 

 Shikarriea always employed in collecting and preparing skins. A case containing 

 good skins of all the above pheasants and also skins of the snow pheasant, 

 Tetraogallus Ilimalayanus, Chakor, Cacabis chalcor, and the black partridge, 

 Francolmus vulgaris, in all 24 skins, will cost eighty rupees, a price which those 

 who know the expense attending collections, will not consider excessive. 



