THE PEACOCK-rHEASANTS. 67 



Polypledron 7ieJirkornm^ Blasius, Mitth. Orn. Ver. Wien. 189 1, 



p. i. ; Ogilvie-Grant, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxii. p. 36c 



(i893). 



{Plate XXVIIL) 



Adult Male. — Crown and elongate crest dark green, shot with 

 purplish-blue; back of the neck, mantle, and wings, black, 

 broadly barred with greenish-blue, changing to dark blue and 

 deep violet and fringed with golden-green ; lower back and 

 tail black, thickly spotted with rufous-buff, the longer upper 

 tail-coverts, and tail-feathers with a pair of bluish-green ocelli 

 changing to deep violet, each framed in a black and grey ring ; 

 the latter absent on the inner webs of the outer pairs of tail- 

 feathers ; the broad superciliary stripes* confluent on the nape, 

 and a triajigular patch on each side of the head^ pure white ; 

 throat and under-parts black ; naked skin round eye crimson. 

 Total length, 19 inches ; wing, 7*3; tail, 87 ; tarsus, 2*5. 



Adult Female. — A well-developed crest brownish-black ; upper- 

 parts pale rufous-brown, finely mottled with black ; feathers of 

 the mantle and wing-coverts with an ill-defined band of rufous- 

 buff near the extremity ; longer tail-coverts without ocelli ; 

 ocelli on the tail-feathers as in the male, but much smaller and 

 more widely edged with black only ; feathers on sides of face 



* Two species have generally been recognised, distinguished by the 

 presence or absence of a white eyebrow. On this subject Messrs. Bourns 

 and Worcester observe : — " While in Palawan we were so fortunate as to 

 secure a series of eleven fully adult males of the Polyplectron inhabitino- 

 that island. Of these, Hvo have not the slightest trace of superciliary stripes, 

 while a third has only four small white feathers on one side. In each of 

 the above there are a few white feathers on the nape. Three of our speci- 

 mens perfectly agree with the description of typical P. nehrkonice. Three 

 specimens have broad superciliary stripes, abiiost confluent on the nape, 

 and in one bird the superciliary stripes which beg'n between the eye and 

 the nostril are very broad, widening steadily towards the nape, where they 

 ai-e fully confluent. An examination of young birds, of which we have a 

 good series, shows that the width and extent of the superciliary lines is 

 independent of age. We therefore feel perfectly satisfied that P. napoleonis 

 and P. nehrkornce are identical, since the width of the white superciliary 

 stripes is an uncertain quantity, subject to wide individual variation, and 

 it may even be absent." 



F 2 



