Vv PHASIANIDAE 213 
Upper Mekong possesses a yellow nuchal collar; P. darwini of East 
China has grey bases to the outer tail-feathers; P. xanthospila 
exhibiting both. These monogamous birds attain a somewhat 
higher elevation than the Cheer, and utter a loud, deep crow; 
but otherwise the habits are the same. The five to nine pointed 
eggs are buff, speckled or blotched with red-brown. 
vennaeus' has a long vaulted tail, a fine crest, naked sides to 
the face covered with red skin or wattles, and metatarsi with a 
single spur in the male. In G. albicristatus of the Western 
Himalayas the crest is white, the head and upper parts being black 
with purple and blue reflexions and white margins to the dorsal 
feathers, the primaries and abdomen brown, and the breast 
whitish. The female is reddish-brown, with delicate black 
markings on the grey-margined upper feathers, and shews white 
below and on the wing-coverts. G. lewcomelanus, with blue-black 
crest, inhabits Nepal: G. muthura (melanotus), without white on 
the lower back, occurs in Sikkim and Bhutan; G@ horsjieldi, 
with black breast, extending from East Bhutan to North Arakan 
and Upper Burma. All the above species have the tail black, 
or rarely vermiculated with white; but in G, lineatus of Burma, 
Siam, and Tenasserim, and the very similar G. andersoni of 
Upper Burma and West Yunnan, it is banded alternately with 
black and white, and the median rectrices are even whiter. 
G. edwardst inhabits Annam. G. nycthemerus, the Silver 
Pheasant of South China, embroidered as a badge on mandarins’ 
dresses, and introduced into England early in last century, has 
an extremely long white tail, obliquely marked with black on 
the lateral feathers, a purplish-black crown, crest and lower sur- 
face, white back of the neck and upper parts with crescentic 
black lines on the latter, and naked red face. G. sawinhoii of 
Formosa is easily distinguished from its allies by the bronzy- 
crimson scapulars, white crest, upper back, and median rectrices ; 
the remaining plumage being bluish- or purplish-black with 
a glossy dark green band upon the wing. The female is mottled 
with rufous, black, and buff, and has a short crest, while that sex 
of the Silver Pheasant is browner, and exhibits white on the 
outer tail-feathers. These “ Kalleges”—a name strictly appli- 
cable to the first four species only—frequent thin forests in low 
valleys, and are but slightly gregarious; they perch on trees, and 
1 Euplocamus and Gallophasis are synonyms of the above. 
