get the answer,'There are none here, but there are some near Guriunia or at
6mSa 58?» g reedjUngle a n d e l e P h w " 8™»- filling a* wide valley between
Extending thus to the extreme north of Chittagong it is probable that this
•pecies wiU also prove to occur in Hill Tipperah and Southern CacharT
THE ARGUS PHEASANT. (Vol. I, pp. 99, et seq.)—
According to the experience of the officers in charge of the London Zoological
Society, thll species only lays two eggs at ft eel ting, the two eggs being laid at an interval
of two days. They have laid in March. May, and July. One hen, which had lost her
fin>t setting, laid later a second, so perhaps they have more than one brood in the
year. Incubation, in which the male took no part, lasted twenty-four days.
The egg is figured and described as a moderately elongated and regular oval,
sligthly compressed towards one end, of a " rich coffee colour" (I should call it a rich
reddish cafe ait lait—a very different thing to coffee colour), "minutely punctured
throughout" (what with is not said, but apparently brow n) " with a darker blotch at
the large end." One egg (as if eggs did not vary in size, and the measurement of one
egg could ever suffice) is said to measure 2 6 by r g .
It is a pity that English writers, as a rule, have no conception of describing eggs
thoroughly and accurately, still the above may be accepted, until better information
is available, it being borne in mind, that experience gained from birds long captive
as to number of eggs laid, and even as to the colour and markings of eggs, does not
always hold good with the same birds in a wild stale, and that it is therefore quite
possible that the information furnished as to these latter, by natives, to Davison (Vol.
I., 101) may ycl prove to have been correct.
THE GREY PEACOCK-PHEASANT. (Vol. L, pp 10$, et seq.)—
Some little additional information in regard to this species has reached mc
from Chittagong.
Mr. H. Easson writes: "The Polyplectron of this district (Chittagong) is
undoubtedly, as you say, Polyplectrum litrctaunm, and the AfatAura, Euplocamus
" They are both" very common in all the heavy jungles of the district. The
Polyplectron rarely to be seen or shot, but not infrequently snared with horsehair
by the village boys—the Mathura often put up and shot when beating for
Jungle-Fowl.
" The Polyplectron is in this district invariably called ' katmoir' ; and is not
known by any o f the vernacular names given in your book. I do not know what
' k a t ' is intended to signify ; ' moir ' is of course Peacock."
Mr. J. Jarbo again says: " Polyplectrons are very early birds, and in this,
the Chittagong, district very shy. As far as I can learn they never leave the bank of
a stream very far ; they are found in the deep, cool and secluded nooks near streams,
may be at the edge of the main jungle, but never in isolated pieces of jungle.
I have never, by any chance, seen one after 7 o' clock A.M.
" When I was at a garden called Boorooiicherra in Southern Cachar, I remember
constantly picking up feathers belonging to this bird, and always in the same, or near
the same place. I never could account for this except by thinking that some knowing
animal, finding out that this was their favourite haunt, laid in wait and daily
carried off a victim."
THE NICOBAR MEGAPODE. (Vol. I., pp. 119, et seq.)~
An egg of this species is figured on the second of the plates of eggs.
THE MOONAL. (Vol. I., pp. 125, et seq.)—
When Vol. I. was published I was not aware that this species extended westwards
beyond Clutral, but during the late war, it was found to be common in Afghanistan
on the Sufatd Koh.
Lieut. W. S. Fairbtother (29th P. N. I.), amongst others, writes : " I see that you
are not aware of the Moonal being found out of the Himalayas, or westward of
Kashmir, So you may be glad to hear that it is common in the Sufaid Koh here
(Kurum, Afghanistan). Freshly-kilted birds were brought in by the natives to
Shalozan last winter. The natives here (Turies) all call the Moonal, Ritkur, but I
cannot say whether this is its specific name, or applied to all Pheasants indiscriminately."
Major C. H. T. Marshall says ; "Here, in Chamba, they call the male Nilgur,
and the female Nttlzvai, "
THE CRESTLESS MOONAL. (Vol. I., pp. 1 3 5 , ^ ^ . )—
For a magnificent male of this species (the first and only specimen that I have as
yet succeeded in procuring) I have been indebted to Sir S. C. Baylcy.
Looking through my former description, I find that I have omitted one important
point, and that is, that the basal portions of the tail feathers (completely hidden by
the upper and under tail-coverls) are black, with a few imperfect narrow white bars.
The dimensions of this specimen do not differ materially from those given at
p. 135, but there is a strong spur, o'Ol in length, on each leg.
A female of this species has also at last been obtained from the Mishmis, who
brought it down to Sadiya, and a description and plate of it have been given in
the P. Z. S.
The female differs from that of the Common Moonal in having the ground colour
of the whole lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts creamy, profusely variegated
by dark brown, and in having the tail feathers (which are black) broadly tipped
with this same creamy colour, and crossed higher up with numerous, narrow, transverse,
zig-zaggy bars of the same colour.
The general style of colouration, too, is much more uniform, and the bird is smaller.
The following is the published description of this female :—
" Description.—Head and (upper) back very rich dark umber-brown, each feather
of the former with a V-shaped pale ochre mark ; each of the latter has a centre line
of a richer brown, finely mottled towards the margins ; a broad extent of the rump
and upper tail-coverts are pale ochraceous white, very finely and delicately mottled
with dark brown ; tail above rich black, with six or seven narrow whitish bars, and
tipped with the same (the counter-colouring of the male) ; shoulder of wing very
rich dark chestnut brown ; the shafts pale ochraceous; primaries rich dark
umber; secondaries slightly mottled with brown; cheeks and throat dark
umber, markings like those on the head ( chin white ; breast, abdomen, and thighs
dull umber, most delicately and finely mottled with pale ochre ; underside of tail
black, with narrow white bars ; the legs appear to have been of a pale grey, and the
bill whitish.
1 1 Wing, 11*5 ; tail, about S ; tarsus, 3 ; bill at front, 175." I have not as yet
myself seen a female.
THE WESTERN TRAGOPAN. (Vol. I., pp. 143, et seq.)—
An egg of this species will be found figured on the third egg plate at the end of
this VoL
THE CHINESE CRIMSON TRAGOPAN. (Vol. I., p. 154.)—
When our first volume was published, the occurrence of this species, within our
limits, was quite unsuspected.
Capt. H. Stevens, of the 42nd N. I., was the first to procure and recognize the
distinctness of a specimen of this species brought down to Sadiya by some
Mishmis.
There is no certainty of course that the Mishmis, who brought clown this specimen,
procured it in their own hills ; but there is good reason to believe (hat they did so.
In the first place, the species is known to occur in Central China, from near Hankow
to the Eastern hills of Setchuen ; these latter extend to within probably 200 miles
of the Mishmi Hills, and though believed to be divided from them by at least two,
if not three, profound river valleys, there would be nothhig primd facie to lead us to
disbelieve in this south-western extension of the bird's range.