Moonal- Pheasants. 259 



and composed of eighteen or twenty 

 feathers. The outermost feathers reach 

 far beyond the middle of the central pair of 

 feathers. The first quill of the wing falls 

 short of the tip of the wing by about two 

 inches. The males have one spur on each 

 leg. 



The female Moonals do not differ 

 structurally from the female Horned 

 Pheasants except in regard to the bill, 

 which is much larger in the former group. 



Regarding the nomenclature of the 

 Moonal-Pheasants {Lophophorics)^ I am 

 unable to follow the author of the Cata- 

 logue of the Game Birds (Cat. B. M. 

 xxii., p. 278) in assigning Latham's name, 

 P, impeyanus (Ind. Orn. ii., p. 632), to 

 the Bronze-backed Moonal. 



It is true that Latham had previously 

 described P. impeyanus under the name 

 of " Impeyan Pheasant" (Gen. Syn. Suppl. 

 i., p. 208, pi. 114, 1787), and that he 

 described, and also figured, the bird with 

 a black back, but this was due, in my 

 opinion, to a very pardonable oversight. 

 Any one who examines the series of skins 

 of the males of the Common Moonal in 

 the British Museum will see at once that, 

 in the great majority of specimens, the 

 white back of this species is completely 



