forest, and in the interior it is the most abundant of our game
birds. When the hills near Mussooree were first visited by
Europeans, it was found to be common there, and a few may
still be seen on the same ridge eastwards from Landour.
" In summer, when the rank vegetation which springs up in
the forest renders it impossible to see many yards around,
few are to be met with, except near the summits of the great
ridges jutting from the snow, where morning and evening, when
they come out to feed, they may be seen in the open
glades of the forest and on the green slopes above. At that
time no one would imagine they were half so numerous as
they really arc ; but, as the cold season approaches, and the
rank grass and herbage dies away, and they begin to collect
together, the woods seem full of them, and in some places
hundreds may be put up in a day's walk.
" In summer, the greater number of the males, and some of
the females, ascend to near the limits of the forests where the
hills attain a great elevation, and may often be seen on the
grassy slopes a considerable distance above these limits.
" I n autumn, they all descend into the forest, frequenting those
parts where the ground is thickly covered with decayed leaves,
under which they search for grubs ; and they descend lower
and lower as winter sets in and the ground becomes frozen or
covered with snow. If the season be severe, and the ground covered
to a great depth, they collect in the woods which face to the
south or east, where the snow soon melts in the more exposed
parts, or descend much lower down the hill, where it is not so
deep, and thaws sufficiently to allow them to lay bare the earth
under the bushes and in sheltered places. Many, particularly
females and young birds, resort to the neighbourhood of the
villages situated high up in the woods, and may often be seen
in numbers in the fields. Still, in the severest weather, when
fall after fall has covered the ground to a great depth in the
higher forests, many remain there the whole winter ; these are
almost all males, and probably old birds.
" In spring all in the lower parts gradually ascend as the
snow disappears.
" In the autumnal and winter months, numbers are generally
collected together in the same quarter of the forest, though
often so widely scattered that each bird appears to be alone.
Sometimes a person may walk for a mile through a wood
without seeing one, and suddenly come to some spot, where,
within the compass of a few hundred yards, upwards of a
score will get up in succession. At another time, or in another
forest, they will be found dispersed over every part, one getting
up here, another there, two or three further on, and so on,
for miles.
" The females keep more together than the males ; they
also descend lower down the hills, and earlier and more generally
leave the sheltered woods for exposed parts or the vicinity
of the villages on the approach of winter. Both sexes are
often found separately in considerable numbers. On the lower
part or exposed side of the hill, scores of females and young
birds may be met with, without a single old male; while
higher up, or on the sheltered side, none but males may
be found. In summer they are more separated, but do not keep
in individual pairs, several being often found together.
" It may be questioned whether they do pair or not in places
where they are at all numerous ; if they do, it would appear
that the union is dissolved as soon as the female begins to sit,
for the male seems to pay no attention whatever to her whilst
sitting, or to the young brood when hatched, and is seldom
found with them.
" The call of the Moonal is a loud, plaintive whistle, which is
often heard in the forest at daybreak or towards evening, and
occasionally at all hours of the day.
In severe weather numbers may be heard calling in different
quarters of the wood before they retire to roost. The call has
a rather melancholy sound, or it may be that, as the shades of
a dreary winter's evening begin to close on the snow-covered hills
around, the cold and cheerless aspect of nature, with which it
seems quite in unison, makes it appear so.
" From April to the commencement of the cold season, the
Moonal, though there is nothing of cunning or artifice in its
nature, is rather wild and shy, but this gives way to the alltaming
influence of winter's frosts and snows ; and from October
it gradually becomes less and less wild, until it may be said to be
almost tame, but as it is often found in places nearly free from
underwood, and never attempts to escape observation by concealing
itself in the grass or bushes, it is perhaps sooner alarmed,
and at a greater distance, than other Pheasants, and may,
therefore, appear to a casual observer at all times a little wild
and timid.
" In spring it often rises a long way in front, and it is difficult
to get near it when it again alights, if it does not at once fly too
far to follow, but in winter it may often be approached within
gun-shot on the ground, and when flushed, it generally alights
on a tree at no great distance, and you may then walk quite
close to it before it again takes wing.
" In the forest, when alarmed, it generally rises at once without
calling or running far on the ground ; but on the open glades
or grassy slopes, or any place to which it comes only to feed,
it will, if not hard pressed, run or walk slowly away in preference
to getting up ; and a distant bird, when alarmed by the rising of
others, will occasionally begin and continue calling for some time
while on the ground.
" It gets up with a loud fluttering and a rapid succession of
shrill screeching whistles, often continued till it alights, when it