THE BLOOD PHEASANTS. il^ 



Feet of the male armed with two or more pairs of spurs; 

 females devoid of these appendages or with a pair of blunt 

 knobs. 



Plumage quite different in the two sexes. 



Only three species are known. 



I. THE BLOOD PHEASANT. ITHAGENES CRUENTUS. 



Phasianus cruentus, Hardwicke, Tr. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 237 



(1822) [male]. 

 Phasianus gardneri^ Hardwicke, Tr. Linn. Soc. xv. p. 167 



(1827) [female]. 

 Ithagims cruentus, Wagler, Isis, 1832, p. 1228 ; Elliot, Monogr. 



Phasian. ii. pi. 30 (1872); Hume and Marshall, Game 



Birds of India, p. 155, pi. (1878). 



Ithagenes cruentus, Ogilvie-Grant, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxii. p. 



268 (1893). 



{Plate XVI I.) 



Adult Male. — Crown buff or rufous-buff; upper-parts grey, 

 with white shaft-stripes, washed with green on the wings ; longer 

 median wing-coverts greeji ; upper tail-coverts widely margined 

 with crimson ; forehead and feathers round the eye black ; 

 chin, throat, and cheeks crimson ; rest of the under-parts shad- 

 ing into pale green, darkest on the sides and belly, the feathers 

 of the chest and breast being more or less edged with crimson.* 

 Under tail-coverts crimson, tipped with greenish-white. Total 

 length, 15-6 inches; wing, 8*3; tail, 6-8; tarsus, 2'6. 



Adult Female. — Forehead, chin, and throat f rust-colour ; back 

 of the head and nape slate-grey; upper-parts pale brown, 

 under-parts reddish-brown, all finely mottled with darker colour. 

 Total length, ii"5; wing, 77; tail, 57; tarsus, 2*3. 



Range. — Higher regions of Nepal, Native Sikhim, Sikhim, 

 and Western Bootan ; it also extends into Tibet. 



* The crimson edges are most marked in birds from Nepal, much less so, 

 or absent, in examples from Sikhim. 



t I have seen an example in which the chin and throat are washed with 

 crimson ; perhaps a barren female beginning to assume male plumage. 



