GAME BIRDS OF INDIA AND ASIA. 33 



of the neck is burnished copper-red, changing to 

 golden-green in some lights ; the upper part of the 

 back is bronze-green, the lower silver-white. This 

 latter colour is usually concealed by the wings, 

 which are metallic purple with metallic blue 

 tips to the feathers. The under -surface of the 

 body is velvety black, and the tail cinnamon. 



The hen has a short crest of ordinary feathers ; she 

 is of a mottled-brown, the light marking tending to 

 run in streaks. Her throat is pure white, and her 

 general appearance is much like that of a huge 

 partridge. 



The young birds resemble her ; the young male, 

 however, has a buff patch on the back where the 

 white one is found in the adult : he does not attain 

 his full plumage till the second year, and even then, 

 curiously enough, the seventh pinion-quill remains 

 brown for a year more. 



The beak of the Monaul is horn-colour and the 

 legs olive-green — ^what is called ' ' willow ' ' by 

 poultry fanciers. The bright blue face noted above 

 is most characteristic of these birds. The cock is 

 about twenty-eight inches long, with the wing nearly 

 a foot and the tail nine and a hajf, the shank three 

 inches in length and the bill two. The hen is a 

 little over two feet long. 



The common Monaul is found throughout the 

 Himalayas, and even extends west to Afghanistan 

 and Chitral. It varies its vertical range according 

 to the time of year and the part of the hills inhab- 

 ited, going higher in the Eastern Himalayas 

 than the Western, and of course much higher in 

 summer than in winter. It is not likely to be 



