Thus, the genus name Pachycephala actually means “thick head,” with cephala coming from the Greek κεφαλή kephali “head,” as in “hydrocephalus,” “cephalic,” etc. It does not mean “elephant head.”Įlephants, rhinoceroses, and hippopotamuses are not actually each other’s closest relatives, but Georges Cuvier (the “father of paleontology”) thought so in the early 1800s when he decided to group them under the category of “pachyderm.” It makes sense - they’re large, they’re grey, and they have thick skin, the meaning of “pachyderm” (from παχύς pachys “thick” and δερμα derma “skin” as in “dermatology” or “epidermis”).Ī thick-skinned pachyderm. Because there’s the additional time pressure, I sometimes get my translations horribly wrong.įor example: Pachycephala. ![]() When I start to get bored with my seemingly endless avian data collection, I play a game of trying to guess the English name based on the scientific name before the relevant Handbook of the Birds of the World page loads on my computer. Mount Everest, in the Himalayas: a snow-abode indeed! The word “monal” comes from the Nepali monāl the name was first applied in English by the Impeys, and then by John Latham (“the grandfather of Australian ornithology”), who ended up with Mary Impey’s ornithological notes.įinally, the English word “Himalayan” comes from the Sanskrit Himālaya meaning “snow-dwelling” from hima “snow” and ā laya “abode.” The genus name “Lophophorus” is Greek for “crest-bearing,” from λοφίο lophio “crest” and φέρω phero “to bear, to bring.” (Lady Mary Impey’s husband, Elijah Impey, was the first Chief Justice of Bengal until was implicated in enough scandals and corruptions charges to force him to return to England, where he served as an MP for a while.)Ī portrait of the Impey family, courtesy of Wikipedia. Some of these paintings are now apparently in Oxford’s Radcliffe Science Library, right down the road from my department, go figure, as well as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the V&A in London. The species names comes from Lady Mary Impey, a natural historian in the late eighteenth century who made detailed notes on Indian birds, founded a menagerie in what is now Kolkata, and commissioned Indian artists to paint beautiful, detailed portraits of local birds, other animals, and plants. Monals are iridescent pheasants living in the Himalayas and the mountains of central China the Himalayan Monal is the national bird of Nepal and the state bird of Uttarkhand. ![]() Monal will dig in the soil to find grass seeds, so the best chance is to find them on slopes or around big rocks.I now bring us back from the land of the cool names over to the (related) realm of the pretty birds, and focus on the Himalayan Monal, Lophophorus impejanus. As these birds are shy, they tend to stay away from the human tracks. The task of locating becomes tougher if the soil is wet with dew in the mornings.īe patient and slow in your movements, pay attention to the area away from the trekking trails. Female Monal can hide in the long grass growing over and around these rocks. Male Monal who are more colorful and radiate in the sunlight are easy to find but they can mix well with Metamorphic Rocks due to their similar colors. This is an intelligent bird and knows his territory well. Monals are very shy (as most of the pheasants are) and have the tendency to hide in case they feel threatened. One has to trek for about 600 meters to reach the meadow where Monals are normally seen foraging for grass seeds and the trek is pretty steep. The real issues start when you reach Chopta and start your search. The above mention issues are not so big that they will stop anyone from pursuing the Himalayan Monals search. Monals do community roost in this season and chances of sightings are very high. Snowfall is very less till Mid-December with temperatures around 5 degrees Celsius during the day and -1 to - 10 during the night. Also, this is the time for their breeding season. ![]() Lesser numbers of humans mean higher numbers of Monal. Tungnath temple is not open till the first week of May. Go either in April or in late November to mid-December. This inflow of humans pushes the Monals deep in the forest. During the summers, from the day when gates of the temple open, there is a huge inflow of worshipers. This area also receives a good amount of snowfall and roads can get closed till authorities open them again. During the winters, temperatures can drop down to as low as -20 degrees celsius in the night. It is also the starting point of the 4 KM trek to Tungnath Temple. There’s no electricity and everything runs on solar power. Due to this, the lodging options are only a few campsites, some very basic budget hotels, and a high-end resort. Chopta is at the height of some 2600 meters amid thick forest of high altitude trees, which is also a National Park for Musk Deer.
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