216 PHEASANTS FOB COVERTS AND AVIARIES. 



numerous farther in the mountains. It frequents the entire 

 range of the Himala, from Afghanistan to Sikhim. Its range 

 in elevation varies according to season, but in the severest 

 winter it does not appear to descend below 6000 feet above 

 sea level. I have seen numbers in Nepal in winter^ brought 

 with other kinds of pheasants by the Botias for sale in the 

 plains of India, where they soon perish when the hot weather 

 begins. 



"They are forest birds, and difficult to be found in 

 summer when vegetation is profuse, unless by ascending to 

 the highest limits of the forest, when shots may be obtained 

 in the open downs above, and amongst the rocks and thin 

 herbage near the snow. In autumn, as tne underwood 

 decays, they descend and scatter through the woods, some- 

 times in great numbers, and seek lower levels as the winter 

 advances and the soil becomes frozen. At such times they 

 draw near to the small villages, perched on the lower spurs 

 and above the sheltered valleys, and seek their food in the 

 fields, where the mountaineers, with their large hoes, have 

 dug up the soil. In these seasonal migrations it has been 

 remarked that the females and young birds descend lowest 

 and approach nearest to human habitations. 



" They appear to be either capricious in their rambles 

 through the woods, or are actuated to particular spots at 

 particular times for reasons not apparent. Sometimes the 

 sportsman will put up in one part of the forest fifteen or 

 twenty in the space of four or five acres. In another portion 

 he may keep on flushing for the rest of the day single 

 birds, feeding in solitude, far apart. At no time are they 

 gregarious, and whenever alarmed they rise and escape 

 independently of each other. In some parts only cock birds 

 are found, in others only hens. 



" Severity of cold and scarceness of food have their 

 taming efi"ect on the Monaul, as on other birds, and the lower 

 the snow the easier the task of making a bag. When on the 

 wing, it generally flies a long way, and if much alarmed 



