84 ALLEN'S NATLfRALISX'S LIBRARY. 



difficult of approach, besides being far less numerous. I have 

 never seen more than three or four of the Burman Pea-Fowl 

 together, whereas the Bengal birds unite in flocks of thirty, 

 forty, or fifty. It haunts the thickest jungle, whether on level 

 ground or on the sides of small hills, and is frequently found 

 in the masses of elephant-grass which so commonly skirt the 

 smaller brackish creeks and nullas of Arakan. A specimen 

 with a full train is seldom seen except in the beginning of 

 the rains, which is the season of courtship. About August 

 they moult, drop their long ocellated tail-coverts, and assume 

 the simpler green-barred ones. The train appears again 

 in the succeeding March or April ; but the moulting of this 

 bird appears to be irregular, and I have seen cock-birds with 

 fine flowing trains in January and February. The hen incu- 

 bates in the rains, but at uncertain periods ; the young, just 

 hatched, have been brought to me at Moulmein at different 

 times, from August till January." 



Eggs. — Cannot be distinguished from those of P. cristatus. 



THE BLACK GUINEA-FOWLS. GENUS PHASIDUS. 



Fhasidus, Cassin, Proc. Acad. Philad. 1856, p. 322. 



Type, F. niger, Cassin. 



Head and neck naked, with the exception of a band of 

 feathers along the middle of the head, commencing at the 

 base of the bill, and a few small scattered plumes on the 

 neck. 



Tail moderately long and rounded, probably composed of 

 fourteen feathers.* Upper tail-coverts about two-thirds of the 

 length of the tail. 



First primary flight-feather considerably shorter than the 

 second, which is about equal to the tenth ; fourth slightly the 

 longest. 



* Both the examples of this rare bird in the British Museum have im^ 

 perfect tails. 



