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ON SOME NEW SPECIES OF SILVER-PHEASANTS OBTAINED IN 

 BURMA, BY CAPTAIN W. C. NISBETT, LIEUT. R. 

 CLIFFORD AND OTHERS. 



By Eugene W. Oates. 



Amongst the pheasants that I have received from Burma during the last two 

 years there are three well-marked new species of Silver-Pheasants. The first 

 two that I shall describe belong to an entirely new section of these birds, 

 in which the males combine a black wing with a barred tail, and the females 

 have the middle tail-feathers with the two webs of different colours. The third 

 species is of remarkable interest, as it has now been rediscovered after an 

 interval of eighty years. The bird was, however, never described nor named, 

 and it was only known from a coloured drawing. 



Genii'ius obscurus, sp„ n. 



In the adult male the head, crest, and the whole lower plumage are glossy 

 blue-black. The hind-neck, mantle, back, and all the upper wing-coverts are 

 bluish black, sparingly speckled with pale buff. The rump-feathers and upper 

 tail-coverts are bluish black, broadly margined with white and very sparingly 

 dotted with pale buff on one or both webs. The primaries are brown ; the se- 

 condaries black, with a few buff specks on the margin of the outer web of each 

 feather. The outermost tail-feather is black ; the middle pair black with 

 narrow, broken, diagonal white bars on the whole of both webs, except the 

 terminal quarter of the outer web, the margin of the basal half of the inner 

 web being plain white. The remaining tail-feathers are of an intermediate 

 character, the second from the outside being black with a few specks of white 

 at the base of the outer web and the feather next the middle pair being black 

 with a few diagonal white lines on the basal three-fourths of the outer web. 



In another male, which is probably a year younger than the specimen 

 described above, the specks or dots on the upper plumage, wing-coverts, and 

 secondaries are more numerous and form narrow, zigzag, broken lines. The 

 markings on the tail-feathers are less numerous and the middle tail-feathers 

 have the inner web entirely black. 



Length of wing 9*25 inches, of tail 1P5 inches. The legs are of a brown 

 colour. 



The female resembles the female of G. Horsfieldi in all respects, except in 

 the coloration of the tail. The general colour of the plumage is reddish brown, 

 the feathers edged paler and vermiculated in an indistinct manner with black ; 

 those of the breast and belly marked with cream-coloured shaft-streaks. The 

 quills of the wing are brown, mottled with fulvous on the outer webs. The 

 outermost tail-feather is entirely black ; the next six are also black, the 

 second from the outside having a few white specks at the base of the outer 

 web, the specks increasing in number on each successive feather and gradually 

 combining into narrow wavy bars, the seventh feather being cross-barred all 

 over, except at the tip. The two middle feathers are of a rich dark chestnut 

 on the outer web and of a pale chestnut on the inner, both webs being longitu- 



