o?i the Display oj the Peacock-pheasant. 231


display both with respect to completeness and according to the

species or genus of the performer. The male of Chrysolophus,

for example, races round the female in circles and rattles his

tail-feathers when he conies to a standstill in front of her. I

have not seen this behaviour in the males of Phasia?ius or of

Tragopan which stalk in a stately manner in front of the hen.

Possibly, however, it has been mv misfortune to observe only

the partial display of these two genera. At all events I am not

in a position to affirm that their sedate strut does not lapse at

times into the headlong run of the Amherst and Gold. These

two pheasants never, I believe, spread the tail to any great extent.

Nor have I seen it widely spread in any species of the genera

above mentioned, with the exception of a Mongolian Pheasant

(. Ph. mongolicus'), which on one occasion was noticed to extend

the tail like a fan and twist it round vertically, presenting its

entire upper side to the hen. The Satyr Tragopan, moreover, has

another pose * which I have never seen assumed by any species

of the Silver, Gold or Common Pheasant types. Facing the hen

with the body slightly crouched, the tail on the ground and the

wings partially spread and flapping, he suddenly erects his head

and exposes and inflates the ultramarine and crimson tongue¬

shaped gular wattle, or ‘bib,’ which, except during sexual excite¬

ment, is concealed by the feathers of the throat. From the

comparative point of view, this pose, accompanied by inflated

wattles and partially-spread wings, is interestingly reminiscent

of the display of the Turkey; but deviation therefrom is shown

by the downward inclination of the back and the depression of

the tail. At the moment, however, I am not especially concerned

with the display of the Tragopans. It is sufficient for my present

purpose to reiterate that the ‘lateral’ method of self-exhibition

is in all essential characters the same in the species of Phasianus.

Chrysolophus , (ThaiunalecS), Gen 7 iceus (Euploccunus) and Tragopan

( Ceriornis ) that have come under my notice in the Gardens, f



* See T. W. Wood “Curiosities of Ornithology,” pp. 16-18, with coloured plate.

Wood speaks of this as the ‘characteristic’ display, but I have only seen this bird show off

in the ‘lateral ’ manner above described. Mr. Angus Macdonald, the Society’s Keeper of

Pheasants, however, tells me he has seen the exhibition of the wattles by the cock bird in

the Zoological Gardens.


t The observation of others confirming or modifying this conclusion or extending it

to other species, like Reeves and Elliott's Pheasants and various kinds of Kalij Pheasants,

of which the Silver is the commonest type, would be both interesting and valuable.



