Ceriornis melanocephalus (Gray).
The Western Tragopan.
Ceriornis melanocephala (Gray), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 617; Hume, Bough Draft N. & E. no, 806.
The only eggs of the Western Tragopan that I have yet seen are six sent to me by Captain Unwin from Hazara, and which were taken on the 25th May, 1869, by Captain Lautour, who communicated to him the following note :-
" I was shooting on a range of hills from 8000 to 11,000 feet high. The Argus in parts very plentiful, the hills covered with pine-forests ; and the Argus I used to find about one fourth of the height of the hill from the top, and they appeared to affect the vicinity and edges of snow nullahs and landslips, where there was a fair quantity of undergrowth and where there were plenty of rocks.
" At the time of finding the nest I was on the lookout for Pheasants, but the ground being rather stiff I had just given up my gun to the shikaree, when the bird got up almost at my feet. I was going through a pine-forest, and had reached a place where an avalanche or landslip had carried away all the pine-trees, and in their place small bushes and shrubs resembling the hazel had sprung up. I was descending into this when the bird got up, as I said before, almost at my feet. The nest was on the ground, and was very roughly formed of grass, small sticks, and a very few feathers ; it was very carelessly built. More I did not observe, as the bird having gone down close, I wanted to shoot it.
" I did not succeed in doing this, but from the close view I had of it and the attention I have since paid to ad our Pheasants, I have no doubt the bird was a hen Argus."
Indian sportsmen always miscall this species and the previous one the Argus. I may add that there is no earthly doubt of the correctness of the identification, as there is absolutely no other bird in the Western Himalayas that could have laid these eggs.
The eggs are more or less elongated ovals, considerably compressed towards the small end. They are, as a whole, of very much the same length, but a good deal slenderer than the eggs of the Moonal. The shed is fine, but almost absolutely devoid of gloss. Looked at from a little distance, they appear to be of a uniform colour and devoid of markings, and seem to vary from a pale cafe-au-lait to a dull reddish buff; looked into closely they appear to have a somewhat lighter ground-colour, excessively finely and minutely freckled and spotted with a somewhat darker shade. They are the least glossy of all the true game-birds' eggs that I know, and in shape and texture, though not in tint, remind one not a little of those of the King Curlew and White Ibis and other birds of that family.
In length they vary from 2.4 to 2.55, and in breadth from 1.68 to 1.72 ; but the average of the six eggs is 2.51 by 1.7.
The Western Tragopan.
Ceriornis melanocephala (Gray), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 617; Hume, Bough Draft N. & E. no, 806.
The only eggs of the Western Tragopan that I have yet seen are six sent to me by Captain Unwin from Hazara, and which were taken on the 25th May, 1869, by Captain Lautour, who communicated to him the following note :-
" I was shooting on a range of hills from 8000 to 11,000 feet high. The Argus in parts very plentiful, the hills covered with pine-forests ; and the Argus I used to find about one fourth of the height of the hill from the top, and they appeared to affect the vicinity and edges of snow nullahs and landslips, where there was a fair quantity of undergrowth and where there were plenty of rocks.
" At the time of finding the nest I was on the lookout for Pheasants, but the ground being rather stiff I had just given up my gun to the shikaree, when the bird got up almost at my feet. I was going through a pine-forest, and had reached a place where an avalanche or landslip had carried away all the pine-trees, and in their place small bushes and shrubs resembling the hazel had sprung up. I was descending into this when the bird got up, as I said before, almost at my feet. The nest was on the ground, and was very roughly formed of grass, small sticks, and a very few feathers ; it was very carelessly built. More I did not observe, as the bird having gone down close, I wanted to shoot it.
" I did not succeed in doing this, but from the close view I had of it and the attention I have since paid to ad our Pheasants, I have no doubt the bird was a hen Argus."
Indian sportsmen always miscall this species and the previous one the Argus. I may add that there is no earthly doubt of the correctness of the identification, as there is absolutely no other bird in the Western Himalayas that could have laid these eggs.
The eggs are more or less elongated ovals, considerably compressed towards the small end. They are, as a whole, of very much the same length, but a good deal slenderer than the eggs of the Moonal. The shed is fine, but almost absolutely devoid of gloss. Looked at from a little distance, they appear to be of a uniform colour and devoid of markings, and seem to vary from a pale cafe-au-lait to a dull reddish buff; looked into closely they appear to have a somewhat lighter ground-colour, excessively finely and minutely freckled and spotted with a somewhat darker shade. They are the least glossy of all the true game-birds' eggs that I know, and in shape and texture, though not in tint, remind one not a little of those of the King Curlew and White Ibis and other birds of that family.
In length they vary from 2.4 to 2.55, and in breadth from 1.68 to 1.72 ; but the average of the six eggs is 2.51 by 1.7.
