202 1L0YDS NATURAL HISTORY. 



females, seems to suggest that these birds are polygamous, like 

 the True Pheasants ; and certainly their behaviour during the 

 pairing-season resembles that of the Black Game and other 

 Grouse. 



Nest. — Placed on the ground at the foot of a rock and hidden 

 by coarse grass and scrub. 



"Eggs. — Yellowish-white; like miniature eggs of the Golden 

 Pheasant. 



THE BAMBOO-PHEASANTS. GENUS BAMBUSICOLA. 

 Bambusicola, Gould, P. Z. S. 1862, p. 285. 

 Type, B. thoracica (Temm.). 

 Tail composed of fourteen feathers, rather long and wedge- 

 shaped, more than three-fourths of the length of the wing. 



The first flight-feather is much shorter than the tenth, and 

 the fifth is generally the longest. 



Plumage of sexes similar. Males (and sometimes females) 

 have a pair of spurs. 



I. FYTCH'S BAMBOO-PHEASANT. BAMBUSICOLA FYTCHII. 



Bambusicola fytchii,, Anderson, P. Z. S. 187 1, p. 214, pi. xi. ; 

 id. Zool. Res. Yun-nan, Birds, p. 673, pi. liv. (1878); 

 Hume and Marshall, Game Birds of India, ii. p. 97, pi. 

 (1879); Ogilvie-Grant, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxii. p. 257 



(1893). 

 Bambusicola hopkinsoni, Godwin-Austen, P. Z. S. 1874, p. 44. 

 Adult Male ani Female. — General colour above brown ; nape 

 mostly chestnut; feathers of the upper-back dark chestnut 

 in the middle, and more or less mottled with white; wing- 

 coverts strongly marked with buff, dark chestnut, and black ; 

 quills mostly chestnut ; eyebrow-stripes, sides of the head, and 

 throat buff; a black band from behind the eye down the side 

 of the neck ; chest brown, marked with chestnut and white ; 

 rest of under-parts buff, with heart-shaped black spots on the 

 sides and flanks 



