176 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXV. 



apply to one of the Kalij Pheasants, but the description does not 

 suffice and moreover the trivial name employed " The Chittagong 

 Pheasant " would seem to shew that it is equally as likely to be the 

 Black-breasted Kali] as the Black-backed bird. Under these 

 circumstances J retain Blyth's name of melanonohts as the earliest 

 certain name for this Pheasant. 



Description — Adult Male. — Whole upper plumage black, glossed 

 with deep violet blue, greenish in some lights and slightly purplish 

 in others, each feather from the hind neck to the shorter tail-coverts 

 with an unglossed velvety black edge to the tip, broadish on the 

 rump, and also with white shafts ; these Avhite shafts shew up well 

 on the scapulars and upper back, but are often almost entirely con- 

 cealed on the rump and upper tail-coverts. Longest upper tail- 

 coverts and tail feathers black-glossed with blue-green or green. 

 Wing-coverts like the back ; quills brown, the outer secondaries 

 glossed with greenish violet on the outer webs and the innermost 

 glossed with the same on both webs. 



Chin and throat blackish brown, the tips of the feathers next tlie 

 breast gradually becoming palev ; the long lanceolate feathers of the 

 breast white with brown bases, the white decreasing and the brown 

 increasing in extent towards the lower breast, abdomen and poste- 

 rior flanks ; venc and extreme centre of abdomen brown ; under tail- 

 coverts and thighs blackish brown. 



Many fine males have the scapulars and wing-coverts very 

 narrowly edged with white, in some the white being pure and well- 

 defined, and in others more or less broken up with velvety black. 

 In two specimens in the Hume Collection the feathers of the 

 scapulars have small smoky white spots at the tips of the feathers 

 instead of distinct white edges. 



The under parts of individuals of this species vary considerably, 

 in some specimens the white portions of the feathers are so exten- 

 sive that the whole breast appears to be white, whilst in others the 

 brown bases shew through everywhere, giving this part of the 

 plumage a mottled brown appearance. 



Colours of the soft 'parts. — Iris brown, hazel brown to orange 

 brown ; facial skin and lappets crimson red, bright red, or 

 crimson ; bill yellowish or greenish horny, palest at the tip, and 

 blackish at the base as far as the nostrills ; legs and feet pale horny 

 brown, greenish brown or fleshy slate ; spurs paler than the legs 

 at the base, then darker, and usually with a light tip; the soles are 

 generally pale fleshy slate colour. 



Measurements — 



" Length 25-0 to 24-0 ; expanse 26-5 to 29-0 : weight 

 " 2-lbs. 6-oas. to 2-lbs. 12-ozs." (Hume). 



Wing 8-5" to 9-5" (215-9 to 241-3 mm.); average of forty 

 birds, 8-94" (227-0 mm.). Tail 9-4" to 12-3" (238-7 to 312-4 



