THE KALIJ PHEASANTS. 273 



bordering the breast and belly with white shaft-stripes.* Total 

 length, 29 inches; wing, 97; tail, 12; tarsus, 3-3. 



Adult Female. — Upper-parts olive-brown with V-shaped white 

 marks on the back; crest tinged with rufous; outer webs of the 

 secondary quills mottled with buff and black along the margin 

 only ; sides of the neck with triangular white spots ; throat and 

 fore-neck whitish ; under-parts brownish-chestnut, each feather 

 with a pointed white shaft-stripe ; middle pair of tail-feathers 

 buff, mottled with black, the outer pairs reddish-brown, with 

 wide irregular white bars edged with black. Total length, 22*5 

 inches; wing, 8*9; tail, 87 ; tarsus, 27. 



Range. — From the Irrawady Valley eastwards through the 

 Pegu, Tonghoo, and Karen Hills ; extending southwards into 

 Tenasserim as far south as Tavoy, and eastwards into North- 

 western Siam. It is also said to extend northwards along the 

 Irrawady Valley as far as Bhamo. 



Habits — Mr. Hume informs us : " It is not a bird of high 

 elevations ; I have no record of its having been seen even as 

 high as 4,500 feet ; it appears to be most numerous at from 

 1,000 to 3,000 feet, though it certainly occurs as high as 3,500, 

 and again right down to sea-level. 



" Its home appears to be the thin deciduous-leaved woods, 

 especially those much mingled with bamboos, of the low hills. 

 It is rarely seen in dense evergreen forests or in grass prairies." 



Mr. Oates remarks : " This species is common throughout 

 the whole of Pegu east of the Irrawady. 



" It is rare or common just in proportion as the country is 

 level or mountainous. In the plains or undulating portion of 

 Upper Pegu it will be met with in small numbers, if the ravines 

 and nallas are sufficiently precipitous to suit its taste ; but in 

 these places, at the best, only one or two will be shot in a long 

 morning's work. It is not till we get to the foot of the hills that 

 this Pheasant can be said to be common. Here the nallas, 



* In some perfectly adult birds nearly all the feathers of the breast and 

 belly have white shaft-stripes, but this character is apparently individual. 



