524 BIRDS OF INDIA. 



Near the Horned-pheasants and perhaps linking them to the 

 true Pheasants, I would place the Pucras or Koklas Pheasants, 

 and Bonaparte includes them both in his section Sattjrece of his 

 Lophophorincs. 



Gen. PucRASiAj Gray. 



Syn. Eulophus, Lesson — LopJiotetrax, Cabanis. 



Char. — Bill short ; head adorned with a double crest, a sincipital 

 tuft on each side, and a central drooping crest ; tarsi with a 

 moderately large spur ; toes and claws lengthened and slender ; 

 tail moderately lengthened, graduated, of sixteen feathers. Plu- 

 mage throughout somewhat lanceolate and cock-like. 



This form may be said to be a sort of link between the Horned- 

 pheasants and the true Pheasants. It has the crest of Phasianus, 

 the hackled plumage of the Jungle^fowl, and in some points 

 appears related to the last genus Ithaginis. The best known 

 species has been described under Tragopan by Temminck ; and 

 one writer states his belief that it leads the way from Pheasants to 

 the LopJiophori. It is confined to the Himalayas and adjacent 

 highlands. Gould in his Birds of Asia describes and figures three 

 species. 



808. Pucrasia macrolopha, Lesson. 



Satyra, apud Lesson — Blyth, Cat. 1472 — Gould, Cent. Him. 

 Birds, pi. 69,70— Gould, Birds of Asia, pt. VI. pi. 4— P. nipal- 

 ensis, Gould, I c. pi. 6 ? — Hardwicke 111. Ind. Zool. pi. 40 — 

 P. pucrasia. Vigors — Tragopan Duvaucelii, Temminck — Plus — 

 Pukras — Koklas or Kolda, in various hill dialects. 



The Pukras Pheasant. 

 Descr. — Male, with the head glossy dark green, the crown being 

 ashy brown ; medial crest, with the upper feathers, ashy brown ; 

 the lateral feathers dark green fully 4 inches ; on each side of the 

 neck a large white oblong spot; body above light ashy, each 

 feather with a long pointed streak of black, and the wing-coverts 

 with some blackish blotches ; upper tail- coverts long, light ashy ; 

 tail brownish chesnut, black at the tip, and faintly edged with 

 wliitish ; beneath, the breast and middle of the belly rich deep 

 chesnut, ashy on the flanks ; vent chesnut, the feathers white tipt. 



