Phasianus wallichi, Hardwicke.
Vernacular Ñames.—[Kahir, Chihir, Nepal; Cheer, Kumaun, Garhwál, and
further west; Buncliil. BoinchU, Henil, HUU north of Mussooric; Chuimnun
Chaman, Chamba, Kullu, &c]
^SSjk ERDON and others following him talk loosely of this
species "inhabiting; the North-Western Himalayas
r^«lK and extending into Nepal, where, however, it is not
^JwIKJ so common as further west."
I t does just occur in the very westernmost por-
• ^ l l g tions of Nepal, and that is all, while to the North-
-•^Ru Western Himalayas, by which I understand Hazara
and Kashmir, it does not, I believe, extend at all.
Its range is very limited. In Nepal it is, I believe, confined to
the Hills west of the Dewa.
It occurs and Is plentiful in Kumaun, British Garhwal, Native
ditto or Teree, in the Hill Parganas (Jaunsar Bawar,) of the
Dehra Dhun district, in Jubal, Tarochc and others of these
small Hill states, Bussahir, Mandi, Suket, Kullu and Kangra.
I t is not uncommon about Chamba, in the upper valley of the
Ravi, but I can obtain no reliable information of its occurrence
in Kashmir,
I ought to notice that there are local differences in the colouration
of the neck, breast, sides, back and rump in the Cheer,
precisely analogous to, though doubtless not quite so marked as
those which, in the case of the Koklass, have led to the formation
of three so-called species. But in the case of the Cheer, perhaps
owing to their comparative scarcity in museums in Europe, no
one fortunately has contended for the existence of more than
one species.
T H E C H E E R is extremely locally distributed, and seems to me
very capricious in its choice of habitations ; on one side of a
river you meet with plenty in suitable spots ; on the other side
you may search fifty square miles of most likely-looking country
and never see one.
From six to seven thousand feet is the elevation at which,
in October, they are most common, but in winter and spring
they go lower, and some even breed lower, and in summer they
may be met with up to at least ten thousand feet (I myself
killed a pair of old ones late in June at fully this elevation), and