T?IE MOONAL PHKASANTS. 23 1 



I. IHE COMMON MOONAL PHEASANT. LOPHOPHORUS 

 REFULGENS. 



Lophophoriis refulgefis, Temm. Pig. et Gall. ii. p. 355 (i 813), 

 iii. p. 673 (1815); Ogilvie-Grant, Cat. B, Brit. Mus. xxii. 

 p. 278 (1893). 

 Lophophoriis iwpeyanus^ Gould {7iec Latham), Cent. B. Himal. 

 pis. 60, 61 (1832) ; id. B. Asia, vii. pi. 53 (1850) ; Elliot, 

 Monogr. Phasian. i, pi. 18 (1872) ; Hume and Marshall, 

 Game Birds of India, i. p. 125, pi. (1878); Gates, ed. 

 Hume's Nests and Eggs Ind. B. iii. p. 407 (1890). 

 Adult Male — Top and sides of the head and crest composed 

 of spade-shaped feathers, metallic-green shot with purplish- 

 blue ; back of the neck reddish copper-colour, shading into 

 golden-green ; mantle shining golden-green ; wings mostly 

 purplish-blue, changing to bronze-crimson ; lower back pure 

 white ; under-parts black, with no green gloss except on the 

 throat; tail light rufous-chestnut. Total length, 26 inches; 

 wing, II-6; tail, 9; tarsus, 3-2. 



Adult Female. — Short crest, top of the head, mantle, rump, 

 chest, and sides of breast black, with buff centres, mostly with 

 black lines on each side of the shaft, and with irregular black 

 bars and mottlings on the wings ; lower back with more or 

 less concentric irregular bars of black and buff; chin and 

 throat white ; rest of under-parts mottled with black and buff, 

 and generally with distinct whitish shaft-stripes; tail black, 

 barred with rufous. Total length, 23 inches; wing, 10-5; 

 tail, 7'5 ; tarsus, 2*6. 



Range. — Elevated forests of the Himalayas, from Eastern 

 Afghanistan to Western Bhotan. 



Every author writing since 1832 has followed Gould's 

 original mistake in calling this bird Lophophorus impeya?ius, a 

 name which, without a shadow of doubt, Latham applied to the 

 next species. He clearly states in his description that his bird 

 had the back and wing-coverts rich purple, tipped with green- 



