172 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCLETY, Vol. XXV. 



Genn^us lelcomelanos. 



The Nepal Kalij. 



Phasianus leucomelanos, Lath., Ind. Orn. II., p. 633 (1790). 



Euplocomus leucomelas, Hoclg., in Gray's Zool. Misc., p. 85 (1844). 



Gallophasis leucomelanos, Gray, Gen. B. III., p. 498 (1845); Hntton, J. A. S. 

 B., XVil., pt. II., p. 694(1848). 



Euplocamus leucomelanus, Hume, Str. Feath. VII, pp. 428-9 (1870); Hume 

 and Marsh, Game-B. Ind. I., p. 285, PI. (1878). 



Gallophasis leucomelanus, Scully, Str. Feath. VIII., p. 345 (1879). 



Gennceus leucomelanus, Ogilvie-Grant, Cat. Birds B. M. XXII, p. 380 

 (1893); id. Hand-L. Game-B. I., p. 262 (1895); Gates, Man. Game-B. I., 

 p. 329 (1898) ; Blanford, Fauna. Brit. In. IV., p. 90 (1898); Stuart Baker, 

 Jour. B. N. H. Soc. XXIII., p. 667 (1915). 



Gennceus leucomelanos, Ghigi, Mem. Acad. Bologna (6), V., p. 145 (1908). 



Vernacular Names. — Kalich, Kalij (Perbuttia), Rechabo (BJmtea, 

 Nejyal). 



Description — Adult Male. — Similar to alhocristatus, but with the 

 crest glossy blue-black with no trace of white or of pale brown. 

 The feathers of the lower back, rump and upper tail-coverts are 

 glossy, blue-black with narrow white edges divided from the black 

 by a very fine bar of brown vermiculations. The wing-coverts 

 have narrower white edges than are foiind in the White-Crested 

 Kalij, and these are. often in the shape of white vermiculations 

 rather than in one distinct bar. The chin and foreneck are darker 

 and more glossy, and the under parts are generally a little less 

 albescent, though this feature is not sufficiently developed to be of 

 any real value. 



Colours of soft parts, as in albocristatus. Hume describes the 

 legs and feet thus : — 



" Legs and feet pale brownish or dingy greyish hornj-; the 

 " toes usually a little darker than the tarsus; claws brownish 

 "horny, spurs dusky." 



Measurements. — Length about 25" (637-0 mm.); wing 8-1" to 

 9-2" (204-7 to 233-6 mm.); average of thirty-five birds, 8-3" (210-8 

 mm.); tail 8-9" to 12-0" (248-9 to 304-8 mm.); tarsus about 

 3-1" (78-7 mm.); crest 2-5" to 3" (71-1 to 76-2 mm.). Hume 

 gives the weight as varying between 1-lb. 12-ozs. and 2-lbs. 8-ozs. 



Adidt Female. — Differs but little from the female of the White- 

 Crested Kalij, but is on the whole rather redder and more richh" 

 coloured, and this more particularly so on the tail and the under 

 parts. The feathers of the breast have quite dark centres such as 

 are never found in albocristatus, and the general darker tint of the 

 centre of the feathers of both upper and lower plumage makes the 

 contrast with the pale edges more striking than it is in that bird. 

 Scully says that : — 



" The adult female resembles that of melanotus much more 

 " closely than it does that of albocristatus or horsfieldi. It 



