1 62 THE KOKLASS. 



confinement than the Jewar or Moonal. It roosts in trees 

 generally, but at times on low bushes or on the ground. 



"In the lower regions this bird should be sought for from 

 about the middle of the hill upwards ; oak forests, where the 

 ground is rocky and uneven, are the most likely places to find 

 it. Dogs are requisite to ensure sport, and are much to be 

 preferred to beaters, as birds which, if flushed by the latter, 

 would go far out of all reach, will often fly into the trees close 

 above the dogs, and may be approached quite close, seeming to 

 pay more attention to the movements of these than to the pre- 

 sence of the sportsman. In the interior they will be found with 

 the Moonal in all forests, but always keep in the wood, and do 

 not, like it, resort to the borders ; they are worth shooting, if but for 

 the table, as the. flesh is perhaps the best of the Hill Pheasants." 



Captain Baldwin has some pertinent remarks on this species, 

 though he, of course, has only shot them in summer, viz. y in the 

 breeding season. He says : — " I have shot the Koklass out of the 

 same cover as the Moonal, at an elevation of 13,000 feet. It is 

 especially fond of cypress and oak forests, and is generally found 

 singly or in pairs. I have never seen more than four full- 

 grown birds together at a time. 



" A sportsman often flushes the Koklass when on the steep 

 grassy slopes looking for Gooral, especially if there are oak trees 

 in the vicinity. I have been startled by the bird, which, when 

 rising, makes a loud croaking noise. The Koklass is a particu- 

 larly swift flyer ; more so, I am inclined to think, than any 

 other of the Himalayan Pheasants ; it darts down the side of the 

 mountains with astonishing rapidity, and requires, when well on 

 the wing, an experienced shot to cut it over. 



" The sportsman, on awakening in the early morning, when 

 encamped on the uplands to hunt Thar, will hear the harsh l kok- 

 kokpokrass' cry of this bird on all sides, and Pucrasia macrolopha 

 when heralding the dawn of day in this manner is generally 

 sitting on one of the lower boughs of a cypress tree. 



" It is in the habit of hunting for food and scratching about 

 in search of insects among patches of rhododendron, and I have 

 observed it so occupied in close company with the Moonal. I 

 do not think that this bird approaches villages and habitations 

 like the Kalij, nor have I ever shot it out of standing corn. 

 They will crow three or four together, on being startled by a 

 distant gun shot, a stone rolling down, or a clap of thunder. 



" Two brace is the most that I have ever shot in a day, though, 

 generally speaking, after driving a valley with beaters, a few 

 brace of Koklass are included among the slain." 



The Koklass breeds throughout the Himalayas in all well- 

 wooded localities within the limits above indicated. The bird 

 may be shot at any elevation from 3,000 to 14,000 feet, but it 



