Lophophorus impeyanus, Latham. 



Vernacular lTam©S.—[Lont {male), Ham {female), Nil-mor, Jungli-mor, Kashmir; 

 Manal Neel, {male), Kururi, Karari {female), Kullu ; Moonal {male), Moonalee 

 {JemaleS, Ghur-monal, Ruttia Cowan, Ratnal, Rat-kap, Central Himalayas ; 

 IJatteya, Thibet and Bhot Pergunnahs of Kumaun and Garhwdl ; Dangan, 

 Dafai, Damphia, Nepal ; Chamdong ( Bhotia), Phodong-pho ( Lepcha) Sikhim.] 



ROM the western* borders of Kashmir to the more 

 western portions, at any rate, of Bhutan, the 

 Moonal is found in suitable localities throughout 

 the Himalayas. So far as is known it extends no- 

 where beyond these mountains. 



What IS essential to this species is elevation and 

 forest. All our Pheasants in the Himalayas may, as 

 Hodgson (I think) pointed out thirty or forty years ago, be 

 roughly divided into three classes ; firstly, those of the high 

 mountains to which belong the Moonal, the Snow Cocks, the 

 Blood Pheasant, and the Tragopans ; secondly, those of the 

 mid region, the Cheer, the Koklass, and the various Kalij 

 Pheasants ; and thirdly, the Jungle Fowl of the lower region. 



And you must have vegetation and forest as well as consider- 

 able altitudes ; it would be vain to seek the Moonal in the stony 

 wildernesses of Lahoul and Spiti, or the desert steppes of 

 Ladakh. 



I have shot many Moonal in my time, and have seen a 

 vast number more. There are few sights more striking, where 

 birds are concerned, than that of a grand old cock shooting 

 out horizontally from the hill-side just below one, glittering 

 and flashing in the golden sunlight, a gigantic rainbow-tinted 

 gem, and then dropping stone-like, with closed wings, into 

 the abyss below. I could say a good deal about these glorious 

 birds, but almost all that I or any one could say was said in 

 his own inimitable style thirty years ago by my old friend Mr. 

 Frederic Wilson, whose charming narrative remains a "joy 

 for ever." 



He says : — 



" The Moonal is found on almost every hill of any elevation, 

 from the first great ridge above the plains to the limits of 



* Biddulph says : " I have procured the Moonal from Chitral, where it is common," 



