196 INDIAN SPOETING BIEDS 



and longitudinally streaked for the most part, varies much accord- 

 ing to locality, and several species used to be distinguished on 

 this account, though so much variability occurs that they are 

 not very tenable. Speaking generally, the koklass is a grey-bodied 

 bird, with the centre of the under-parts chestnut, reaching right 

 up to the neck in front, and sometimes extending backwards on 

 it. The grey feathers are streaked with black, and either of 

 these colours may predominate at the expense of the others, 

 while the characters may be combined in different ways. The 

 birds range nearly all along the Himalayas, and the local varia- 

 tions may be thus summed up. 



I In the North-west, where the typical macrolopha is the form 

 found, there is as much grey as black on the body-feathers. 

 In Nepalese birds, the so-called P. nepalensis, which is figured 

 separately by Hume, though he himself was inclined to treat them 

 all as one species, the body-feathers have more black than grey, 

 so that the bird looks much darker. In Kashmir birds, which 

 have been distinguished as P. biddulphi, the peculiarity consists 

 in an extension of the chestnut colour on the sides of the neck. 

 Even in the "Fauna of British India" the P. castanea of Kafir- 

 istan, Yassin, Chitral, and Swat, which is very little known, 

 is. kept distinct, and I followed this in my own book on Indian 

 game-birds ; but it really seems rather absurd to keep it separate, 

 its only distinction being the great exaggeration of the chestnut 

 round the neck and along the flanks. 



The hens show very much less difference, though the 

 Nepalese specimens run to a good deal of chestnut in the tail ; 

 there is nothing about their brown variegated plumage to attract 

 attention, except the very pointed shape of the feathers all over, 

 which is common to both sexes of the koklass, as well as the 

 pointed tail. The hens have a very short blunt crest, and are not 

 spurred like the cocks, which also have longer legs. 



Another noticeable and characteristic point about koklass 

 is that they have no bare skin about the face like most 

 pheasants, and that their wings are unusually long and pointed 

 for pheasants, more like a dove's, in fact. Connected with this 

 is the great speed in flight, which exceeds that of any of our other 

 ■pheasants. 



