144 THE WESTERN TRAGOPAN. 



They were, and always will be, during the warmer seasons of the 

 year (they are much tamer I know in winter) rather wild and 

 shy, given to skulking, and hard to flush, unless by accident 

 you come suddenly upon them. In no place did I ever find 

 them numerous as the Moonal often is ; but, though scattered 

 widely, there were, and the most reliable sportsmen tell me that 

 there still are, plenty of them, if they are looked for in suit- 

 able places, in the right way and with good dogs. To go after 

 Tragopans in summer without these latter, is much like going 

 fishing without hooks. 



Writing from Kullu recently, Mr. Young remarks : — 



" This is, of all the Indian Pheasants, perhaps the one most 

 easily reared in captivity. Its habitat is much the same as 

 that of the Moonal, though its zone of distribution descends 

 to a somewhat lower altitude. Its favourite food is the berry 

 of an evergreen plant called in Kullu Dekha ; it is, I believe, a 

 species of Carunda. 



" I have always found this bird much easier to shoot than 

 the Moonal ; when put up by dogs, I have known a dozen or 

 so fly up into the surrounding trees, uttering their curious 

 call, something between a kid's bleat and the cry of a wild 

 goose. 



" Once in the trees, they never offered to move, but sat 

 stupidly staring at the dogs, whilst I picked them off one by 

 one. This, however, was only early in the season ; later they get 

 wiser, and are very wild, going off a long distance after the 

 first couple of shots. 



" I have not unfrequently seen this bird in company with the 

 Moonal in the summer months, when I have often found them 

 together in the grassy patches in the higher forests, a small 

 company of a dozen or so of each species, and more rarely one 

 or two Cheer." 



It is only in out-of-the-way places that they are thus tame, 

 and I cannot myself say that I have ever found them feeding 

 out in the open; but the habits of all these birds do vary a 

 good deal according to locality, and I quote the above for com- 

 parison with Wilson's old note, which, as in many other cases, 

 still gives, to my fancy, the best and most exhaustive account 

 of the habits of this species : — 



" Except where an isolated village is situate high up in a 

 densely-wooded locality and surrounded by thick forest, the 

 Jewar is seldom or never found near the habitations of man, but 

 frequents the darkest and most solitary parts of the woods, 

 where it is not often subject to disturbance ; and keeps so still 

 and secluded in their shady recesses, that not one in twenty of 

 the inhabitants of the nearest villages ever see one, except when 

 caught or killed by a shikari. 



" In autumn and winter its haunts are in the thickest parts 

 of the forests of oak, chestnut and morenda pine, where the 



