til VRtRRQ VMMMNUI. 



Ceriornis melanocephalus, Gray. 



Vernacular ITaiJICS- — [Jewar, Jowar, Garhwdl ; Jaghi, Jajhi, Bussahir ; Sing= 

 monal (Hindustani), N. W. Himalayas ; Jigurana, Jeejurana (male), Bodal 

 (female), Kullu, Mandi, Sukeyt ; Fulgoor (Pahari Hindi) Chamba.] 



HE Western Tragopan does not quite meet its eastern 

 representative. Its eastern limit is the ridge be- 

 tween the Kattor and Bhilling rivers, in native Garh- 

 wal, and then for some four days' march you meet with 

 neither species. In this interval, there are three high 

 ridges to cross that divide the Bhilling Rand Valley 

 from that of the Bangar Rand, this latter from the 

 Mandagni Valley, and this latter again from that of the Alak- 

 nanda. 



Westwards of the Kattor Bhilling ridge, it is the only 

 species found in native Garhwal, and thence it extends west- 

 wards along all the higher well-wooded ranges, as far, at any 

 rate, as Kashmir.* 



It is many years since I shot this beautiful species, and it 

 was then neither rare, nor, even in spring and summer, difficult 

 to obtain with good dogs, in suitable localities, and these were 

 forest-clad slopes, ridges and spurs of from eight to eleven 

 thousand feet elevation adjoining or running down from higher 

 snowy ridges. 



A recent writer, Baldwin, says that this " is by far the rarest 

 of all our Hill Pheasants, and is now, from constantly being 

 snared and shot, seldom met with, and then only in the most 

 unfrequented valleys and regions hardly ever visited by sports- 

 men. In fact, a hunter might wander for years together in our 

 hills without once coming across the bird." 



Of course he might, if he did not know where to look for 

 them, but from all the enquiries I have recently made, I believe 

 there are plenty of Tragopans left, and that though they have been 

 driven away from the immediate neighbourhood of our large 

 Hill Stations,-)* there are enormous tracts in which they are 

 just as plentiful as when I was a boy. 



* How far it extends in Kashmir is uncertain. Biddulph writes that he has not 

 yet seen it west of the Indus, but it certainly occurs in Hazara. 



t Up to within 15 or 20 years ago, one or two used to be shot every winter on 

 Jakko, the central hill of Simla, which is very little over 8,000 feet elevation. 



