CEYLON PIGEONS AND GAME BIRDS. 367 
B.—Size small ; wing under 4 inches. 
(a) Tail of 8 feathers ; * wing 2°75. 
Excalfactoria chinensis (Chinese Quail). 
(b) Tail of 10 or 12 feathers ; * first and second wing 
quills longest ; no spur ; wing 3°5. 
Coturnix coromandelica (Black-breasted Quail). 
(c) Tail of 12 feathers ; fourth wing quill longest, 
males with a blunt spur ; wing 3°25. 
Perdicula asiatica (Bush Quail). 
C.—Size medium ; wing about 5:5 ; face completely feathered. 
(a) Back black and white. 
Francolinus pictus (Painted Partridge). 
(6) Back brown and buff. 
Francolinus pondicerianus (Gray Partridge). 
Pavo cristatus (Blanford, Vol. IV., p. 68 ; Legge, p. 731). 
The Common Peafowl. 
Description.—Male : the head, face, and throat are covered 
with short feathers of metallic green and blue, the blue 
predominating on the crown and the green elsewhere ; from 
the crown springs an erect crest of feathers with almost naked 
shafts and fan-shaped tips of black fringed with blue-green ; 
the neck all round and upper breast are a rich metallic blue. 
The back feathers are metallic green with black circular margins 
at the tip and dark wedge-shaped stripes adjoining the shafts, 
which are green. These feathers shade into the bronze-green 
plumes of the long train with their ocelli of purple and black 
ringed by blue-green, copper, green, and bronze. The 
scapulars, wing coverts, and tertiaries are buff-barred and 
mottled with black. The primary coverts and quills are 
chestnut, the secondary quills blue-black; some of the secon- 
dary coverts are black glossed with purple and green. The 
tail is brown ; the breast and flanks glossy dark green ; the 
abdomen and fluffy lower tail coverts dark brown ; the thighs 
buff. 

* The tail feathers in these species are concealed by the tail coverts. 
12 6(7)17 

