Ceriornis satyra, LinnL 



VornaCTllad 1 ITaBlGS-— [Loongee, British Garhwdl and Kumaun ; Omo, (Bhutia) 

 Moonal, (Perbuttia) Nepal ; Tirriakpho (Lepcha), Bup, (Bhotia), Nunal 

 (Hindustani), Sikhim ; Dafia (Bengali, apud Jerdon ) ]. 



HE higher wooded ranges of the Central and Eastern 

 Himalayas are the home of our Crimson Tragopan. 



Westwards, it extends to Kumaun and the western 

 portions of British Garhwal, where the Alaknanda 

 Valley marks its westernmost limits.* It is found 

 in suitable localities throughout Nepal and Sikhim 

 and well into Bhutan. How much further east it 

 occurs is still uncertain. Godwin-Austen does not mention it in 

 his list of Daphla Hill birds, but I have seen a skin sent from 

 Tezpur said to have been brought down from these Hills. 



In THE SUMMER they are to be found at elevations of from 

 8,000 to 10,000 feet, always in thick cover, by preference in 

 patches of the slender reed-like ringal bamboo, in the neigh- 

 bourhood of water. 



Although always on hills near to or bordering on the snow, 

 they are never seen amongst it (except perhaps in winter), 

 and seem to shun it, as much as the Blood Pheasant delights 

 in it. Even the Moonal will be seen high above the forest, well 

 up on grassy slopes, fringed with and dotted about with patches 

 of snow. But the Tragopan is essentially a forest bird, rarely if 

 ever wandering up towards the snow or into the open, and 

 though frequenting perhaps rather their outskirts than their 

 deeper recesses, it hardly ever voluntarily quits the shelter of 

 the woods and their dense undergrowth. 



Except by chance, when you may come upon a male 

 sunning himself or preening his feathers on some projecting 

 rock or bare trunk of a fallen tree, these birds are never to be 

 seen, unless by aid of three or four good dogs, who will speedily 



* During a period of over 30 years that he has worked these hills, Mr. Wilson has 

 known only one exception to this rule. Once one of his people shot a cock-bird 

 of this species, a good deal further west, viz., in the Kattor Valley, three valleys west 

 of the Alaknanda Valley. 



Colonel Fisher's testimony is nearly to the same effect. He says : — 

 "This bird occurs in all the northern pargannas of Kumaun, but only in the two 

 north-eastern pargannas, Dasoli and Painkhunda, of Garhwal and not, I think, 

 further west. 



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