CHINESE IMPEYAN PHEASANT 



Lophophorus Ihuysii Verreaux and Saint-Hilaire 



Names. — Specific : Ihuysii, for M. Drouyn de Lhuys, President, in 1866, of the Societe Imperiale d'Acclima- 

 tation. English : de Lhuys's Moonal Pheasant ; Chinese Impeyan or Monal. French : Lophophore Drouyn de 

 Lhuys. German: Schwarzschwanzige Stahlhuhn. Vernacular: Ho-than-ky (Fowl-of-burning-coals), Pae-mou-ky 

 (Succulent-tuber-bird), Chinese. 



Brief DESCRIPTION. — Male : Except for very large white patch from the upper back to the tail, the upper 

 parts are highly iridescent ; head green, occipital crest purple ; mantle red-gold ; wings and tail chiefly bronze- 

 green. Under parts black, slightly margined or glossed with iridescence. Female : White dorsal patch as in 

 male ; rest of upper plumage dark brown, rather sp iringly mottled and irregularly barred with rufous buff; flights 

 and tail feathers with more regular rufous bars ; face and throat whitish ; under parts very dark brown, with less 

 mottling than above, the feathers with conspicuous white, irregularly shaped shaft-streaks. 



TYPE. — Mountains of Moupin, western Szechuan ; Verreaux, Bull. Soc. d'Acclim., 1866, p. 223. In the 

 collection of the British Museum. 



Range. — Central China, in Szechuan and Kokonor. 



GENERAL ACCOUNT 



Our knowledge of this bird is most meagre. Its distribution bears much the same 

 relation to that of impeyanus as does that of the Chinese Blood Partridge (/. sinensis) to 

 the Himalayan species (/. crnentus). We know of specimens which have been obtained 

 in western and north-western Szechuan and in south-eastern Kokonor. The localities of 

 eastern Yunnan and Kansu are as yet doubtful. 



The few scattered notes in regard to its life history show that it differs in no radical 

 way from the Himalayan Impeyan. It is found during the day in small parties, some- 

 times males and females in separate companies, often frequenting the open rocky tundras 

 or barren mountain meadows at twelve to sixteen thousand feet elevation, well above the 

 zone of forests. At night the birds descend to perch either in the dense, scrubby, 

 stunted rhododendrons, or still farther downward among the sheltering branches of the 

 pines. The food consists of vegetable substances, and especially of succulent roots and 

 tubers, for which, in true Impeyan fashion, it digs with its broad, strong beak. 



The names which the Chinese have bestowed upon it show how strong an impres- 

 sion the bird has made upon them ; but, unfortunately, it is not only their imagination 

 which is affected, for we read that the bird is everywhere uncommon and soon will 

 disappear entirely. This is owing to the zeal with which the natives pursue it, capturing 

 it by setting great numbers of wire snares, as they have learned that its flesh is very 

 delicate. The cry is described as consisting of three or four separate, loud, piercing 

 notes, uttered in early morning. 



Wilson gives the following account of the Chinese Impeyan or Monal. " Scattered 

 through the same region as the White Crossoptilun, only at greater altitudes, occurs the 



magnificent Monal Pheasant, at once the most gorgeous and rarest of all game-birds 



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