218 PHEASANTS FOB COVEBTS AND AVIARIES. 



in Tirhoot. They were strong and vigorous as long as tlie 

 cold weather lasted, and soon became tame, and did not 

 succumb to the atmosphere of the plains till June, when the 

 rains had set in. Unlike the smaller hill pheasants, they were 

 not pugnacious. If shipped off early in the cold weather 

 from Calcutta, these birds could easily enough be transported 

 to England, where the temperature would suit them, if there 

 were any means of giving them shelter during the extreme 

 severity of winter, or of procuring for them in that season a 

 proper substitute for the insect food which never fails them 

 on the lower elevations of the Himala. If they could become 

 as thoroughly acclimated as the common pheasant, they 

 would indeed be a superb ornament to our parks and planta- 

 tions, though perhaps no great acquisition to the table. It is 

 many years ago since I tasted the Monaul, and, speaking 

 from memory, the flavour appeared to me much the same as 

 that of peafowl, the breast being tender and palatable in the 

 young birds, but no part being fit for anything but soup in 

 old specimens. The Monaul has bred in England, both in the 

 Zoological Gardens of London and in the possession of the 

 Earl of Derby, where the female is said to have laid on one 

 occasion thirteen to fourteen eggs." 



In appropriate localities there should be little difiiculty in 

 rearing the young, which should be amply supplied with 

 custard and ants' eggs, in preference to much grain, and the 

 fowl rearing them should be allowed as much freedom as 

 possible, in order that she may supply the young chicks with 

 appropriate insect food. 



The following is the description of the two sexes and 

 young : — " The bill of the male is dusky brown or horny ; iris 

 sombre brown ; legs greenish lead colour ; naked orbits ; small 

 blue head ; crest and throat green, and highly metallic ; the 

 lanceolate feathers on the hind neck amethystine or bright 

 purple, changing in lights into cupreous green with a golden 

 glance; middle of the back white; but all the rest of the 

 upper parts, including the upper tail coverts, rich blue. 



