Part 143 - Lung: Halt days with bird collecting and searches for tragopan

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SUMMARY:
At Lung, the party halted for several days of fine weather while shooting birds and searching unsuccessfully for tragopan. The diarist notes rough valley paths, collects some rhododendron seeds, and remarks that other rhododendron seeds are not yet ripe.

CONTENT:
Lung
20th October. Halt. The first fine day we have had since the 4th Oct.
Wind from the North, cloudy but bright. Went down the valley a
bit - wandered round the flat part below camp. Shot four birds -
saw two woodcock about a mile down. Tsongpen & the gyimpon will go
off early in the morning to look for tragopan.

21st October. Halt. Another beautiful day, fine all day. Tsongpen &
the gyimpon spent from 6 am till 2.30 pm looking in the jungle for
tragopan, but they saw none, not even any signs of them. So
I'm afraid we are unlikely to get any here now, though I have
two more days to do up on the hillside.

Lung
22nd October. Halt. Fine all day, with a very strong wind: clouded
over in the evening & looks like rain. Tsongpen & I went down a
good long way in the main valley - 5 hours. The path is
really pretty dreadful, hardly ever level for 10 yards, & as much
on notched logs & ordinary logs as on the ground. It is far the
worst I have seen anywhere this year. Shot a Heteroxenicus
stellatus, Sylviparus & Fulvetta ludlowi in beautiful plumage, saw
two or three nutcrackers. The cinnabarinum rhododendron is
not yet ripe, but I took some seeds to try. The big maddenii
R. crassum seed
2332 & 2338 were not ripe, but further down I came across one