22 Mr. E. C. Stuart Baker on the Genus Ithagenes. 



V. — Note on the Genus Ithagenes. 

 By E. C. Stuart Baker, M.B.O.U. 



(Plate III.) 



N 1899, when Bowdler Sharpe wrote the first volume of the 

 Hand-list of the Birds/ only three species of this genus 

 f beautiful Blood-Pheasants were then known (Hand-list, 

 ol. i. p. 33), i. e., Ithagenes crutntus, I. geoffroyi, and 

 . sinensis. In August 1912 Beebe published the descrip- 

 on of a new species, which he named /. kuseri, and a 

 ew subspecies of /. cruentus which he called /. c. affiais 



Zoologica,^ New York, U.S.A., vol. i. No. 10), and finally 



have described /. tibetanus* from a bird obtained by 

 apt. Molesworth in Tibet. 



As regards the forms enumerated by Sharpe, there can 

 e no hesitation in accepting all three as perfectly good 

 secies well differentiated from one another and with no 

 jnnecting links ; but, with regard to both /. tibetanus and 



kuseri., there may possibly be some doubts as to whether 

 ley should rank higher than subspecies. In their principal 

 aints of coloration the three forms are the same, or 

 iffer only in intensity or degree of colouring. As Beebe 

 aints out, when the three birds are laid out, one notices 

 : once that they are grey birds with three brilliant 

 zones of crimson on the ventral surface, chin, mid-breast, 

 id under tail-coverts.^' 



These zones, more especially that on the breast, vary very 

 I'eatly, not only in the three species, but in individuals 

 \ the same species ; and if differentiation depended on tbis 

 one, I should certainly reduce both /. kuseri and /. tibetanus 

 I the rank of subspecies of /. cruentus, and indeed, when 

 I'st exhibiting some specimens of /. kuseri, I treated it as a 

 ibspecies of that bird. The distribution, however, of the 

 'imson on the head and the difference in the amount and 

 3sition of the black would appear to point to the validity of 

 le species : especially is this the case with /. kuseri, of which 



* Bull. B. 0. C. xxxv. 1911, p. IS. 



