252 ALLEN'S naturalist's LIBRARY. 



I. Hodgson's eared-pheasant, crossoptilon 



TIBETANUM. 



Phasianus {Crossoptilon) tibetanus^ Hodgson, J. As. Soc. Beng. 

 vii. p. 864, pi. 46(1838); id. Ind. Rev. iii. p. 593, pi. 



(1839)- 

 Crossoptilon tibetafium, Sclater, List of Phasian. p. 6, pi. 4 



(1863); Elliot, Monogr. Phasian. i. pi. 14 (1872); David 



and Oustalet, Ois. Chine, p. 407, pi. 107 (1877); Hume 



and Marshall, Game Birds of India, i. p. 115, pi. (1878) ; 



Ogilvie-Grant, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxii. p. 293 (1893). 

 Crossoptilofi auritum, G. R. Gray {/lec Pallas), Gen. B. iii. p. 



495, pi. cxxv. (1845). 

 Crossoptilon droiiynii, Verreaux, N. Arch. Mus. Bull. iv. p. 85, 



pi. iii. (1868); Elliot, Monogr. Phasian. i. p. xviii. pi. 15 



(1872). 

 Adult Male. — Crown covered with short, soft, curly black 

 feathers ; long ear-tufts white, as in all the other species ; whole 

 plumage above and hoXo"^ pure white, shading into grey on the 

 longer wing- and tail-coverts; quills brownish ; tail with tiventy 

 feathers, black, glossed with dark greenish-blue and deep 

 purple towards the extremity.* Total length, 36 inches ; wing, 

 12-4; tail, i8-6; tarsus, 3*9. 



Adult Female. — Perfectly similar in plumage, but devoid of 

 spurs. 



Eange. — Mountains of Western China and Eastern Tibet. 

 The typical specimen described by Hodgson was brought 

 into Nepal by an envoy who had been to Pekin, but the 

 exact locality where the bird was obtained was never ascer- 

 tained. 



Habits. — This splendid white Pheasant inhabits the pine- 

 forests at elevations varying from io,ooo to 12,000 feet above 



* In Hodgson's type the six outer pairs of tail-feathers have an oblong 

 white spot on the outer web running nearly parallel to the shaft, but these 

 markings are not symmetrical on the two sides, and, in all other specimens 

 that we have examined, are entirely absent. 



