mt w»!*ii!tii! mm 



iV*'« 



Euplocamus albocristatus, Vigon 



VemaClllar Names.— [Kalij, Kumaun and Garhwdl (and generally) ; Rook- 

 era, Meerghi-Kalij, Hills north of Mussooree ; Kaleysur (male), Kalaysee, 

 (female), (Pahari Hindi), Ktcllu, Mandi, Suket, &>c. ; Kolsa (Punjabi), 

 Western Punjab.] 



E have four well-marked species of Kalij Phea- 

 sant, and as one of them has for long been 

 erroneously considered a hybrid, it may be 

 well to preface my remarks on the first species 

 by a brief table of the leading differences be- 

 tween the four : — 



E. albocristatus $ . 



leucbmelanus 

 vielanonotus 

 horsfieldi 



Crest. Breast. Rump and Upper Tail-coverts. 



White. Greyish white, feathers Broadly tipped white. 



sharp pointed. 

 Black. Do. More narrowly do. 



Do. Do. Black. 



Do. Black, feathers rounded. Broadly tipped white. 



Throughout the fairly wooded lower and middle ranges of 

 the Himalayas, from Kumaun to Hazara, the White-Crested 

 Kalij occurs, here sparingly, there abundantly, according to 

 season and a variety of other more or less potential influences. 



It occurs equally, and in some places very abundantly, in 

 the Siwaliks, a low range running nearly parallel to, but 

 from thirty to sixty miles south of, the central and western 

 sections of the Himalayas, and quite distinct from these geo- 

 graphically and geologically. It is the only Himalayan 

 Pheasant that does occur in these. 



I do not believe that it ever enters Nepal. Mr. Hodgson 

 notes that, out of many hundred birds, he only saw one white- 

 crested one, which was brought from far to the west beyond 

 Jumla, and therefore probably from the Eastern Kumaun 

 Hills, where I have myself shot albocristatus. If it does occur 

 in Nepal, it is only in quite the westernmost portions. It is 

 said to extend westwards into Baneer and Swat, but this needs 

 confirmation. Biddulph, writing from Gilgit, says that he has 

 not met with this species west of the Indus. 



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