THASIANIDAE 2 1 



the tail is vaulted, the cheeks exhibit patches of rugose blue 

 skin — red in L. diardi — while the male has a pair of spurs and 

 an erect crest with bare-shafted plumes. L. nohilis of Borneo is 

 purplish -blue with fiery chestnut rump -region, golden lower 

 breast, black head, throat, and wings, the four median rectrices 

 being entirely buff and the lateral black with buff markings ; L. 

 vieiUoti of Siam, the Malay Peninsula, and Sumatra has the 

 lower breast black, and the two middle rectrices white, L, ignita 

 of China differing in its chestnut-spotted flanks ; L. diardi {prae- 

 lata) of Siam, Cambodia, and Cochin China has a grey and 

 black mantle, neck, and breast, a golden buff lower back, and 

 crimson-tipped rump-feathers. The females have the mantle red- 

 brown or chestnut, and outer rectrices of the latter colour in L. 

 vieilloti,hnt black in L. nolilis ; in L. diardi the black wing-coverts 

 have wide buff bars. This sex of L. ignita seems to be unknown. 

 Acomus has naked cheeks, but no crest or wattles ; the tail is vaulted, 

 and a pair of spurs is found in both sexes. A. ergthroj^hthalmus 

 of the southern Malay Peninsula and Sumatra is chiefly purplish- 

 or bluish-black with fiery golden lower back, rich buff tail, and white 

 wing-markings ; A. 2Wonotns of Borneo exhibits white shaft- 

 stripes on the breast ; A. inornatus. of West Sumatra, of which 

 the male only has been discovered, has black plumage margined 

 with dark blue-green, therein somewhat resembling the hens of 

 its congeners, which are black glossed with purplish-blue. In 

 habits this genus apparently resembles Lojplmra. 



Lophophorus contains four gorgeous species of almost unsur- 

 passable brilliancy, among which the ]\Ional, constantly misnamed 

 the Impeyan Pheasant, is l)est known. The tail is rounded, each 

 metatarsus is provided with a spur in the male, and bare blue 

 skin surrounds the eye. The Himalayan Monal (Z. refidgcns) 

 has a crest like that of the Peacock, uniform in colour with the 

 purplish-green head ; the neck is purple, coppery, and green, the 

 mantle golden-green, the lower back white, and the tail chest- 

 nut ; the wing- and tail-coverts being green or purple with blue 

 and green reflexions, the under parts black, and the remiges 

 dusky. Its habits differ somewhat from those of other Pheasants, 

 a preference being shown for grassy hill-forests not far from the 

 snow-line ; it roosts in trees, though generally found on the 

 ground during the day, and is not very wild, trusting to its speed 

 of foot in open spots, l)ut readily taking to wing in tlie wood- 



