THE WESTERN TR AG OP AN, 1 49 



my gun to the shikari, when the bird got up almost at my feet. 

 I was going through a pine forest, and had reached a place 

 where an avalanche or landslip had carried away all the pine 

 trees, and in their place, small bushes and shrubs, resembling the 

 hazel, had sprung up. I was descending into this, when the bird 

 got up, as I said before, almost at my feet. The nest was on 

 the ground, and was very roughly formed of grass, small sticks, 

 and a very few feathers ; it was very carelessly built. More I did 

 not observe, as the bird, having gone down close, I wanted to 

 shoot it. 



" I did not succeed in doin? this, but from the close view I 

 had of it, and the attention I have since paid to all our Phea- 

 sants, I have no doubt the bird was a hen Argus." 



Indian sportsman always miscall this species, and the previous 

 one, " The Argus." I may add that there is no earthly doubt 

 of the correctness of the identification, as there is absolutely no 

 other bird in the Western Himalayas that could have laid these 

 eggs. 



The eggs are more or less elongated ovals, considerably com- 

 pressed towards the small end. They are, as a whole, of very 

 much the same length, but a good deal slenderer than the eggs 

 of the Moonal. The shell is fine, but almost absolutely devoid 

 of gloss. Looked at from a little distance, they appear to be 

 of a uniform colour and devoid of markings, and seem to vary 

 from a pale cafe an lait to a dull reddish buff; looked into 

 closely they appear to have a somewhat lighter ground colour, 

 excessively finely and minutely freckled and spotted with a 

 somewhat darker shade. They are the least glossy of all the 

 true game birds' eggs that I know, and in shape and texture, 

 though not in tint, remind one not a little of those of the King 

 Curlew and White Ibis, and other birds of that family. 



In length they vary from 2*4 to 2*55, and in breadth from 

 i'68 to 172 ; but the average of the six eggs is 2*51 by 1*7. 



I HAVE unfortunately lost my paper of measurements, &c, of 

 this species. The following are chiefly from Wilson : — 



Males. — Length, 27 to 29; expanse, 37; wing, 11*25; tail, 

 I0'5 to 11 ; tarsus, 3. Weight, 4*5lbs. Bill blackish ; irides hazel 

 brown ; naked skin round the eye bright red, two fleshy horns 

 about an inch and a half long, sky blue ; the gular wattle purple 

 in the middle, fleshy on the sides, spotted and edged with pale 

 blue ; legs and feet pale flesh colour, approaching to white. 



I, however, distinctly remember that the horns had sometimes 

 a very greenish tinge ; that there were some blue markings on the 

 face below the eye, and that the pinky portion of the throat 

 lappet was, in some cases at any rate, a vivid salmon pink. 

 The legs, too, become much redder during the breeding season. 



In the cold weather, the horns and lappet shrivel up to 

 nothing, and can barely be traced, and even in the summer it 



