THE KAT.TJ PHEASANTS. 379 



black; crest, mantle, and middle pair of tail-feathers/^r<? white ; 

 scapulars dark crimson with bronzy-red reflections ; rest of 

 upper- and under-parts and outer tail-feathers black, glossed 

 with purplish-blue, especially on the chest and breast. Total 

 length, 29*5 inches; wing, 9-5; tail, 16; tarsus, 3*8. 



Adult Female. — Crest rather short ; head, back, and wing- 

 coverts reddish-brown, the former with rufous-buff shaft- 

 stripes to the feathers, the latter with the middle of each 

 feather black and a triangular yellowish-buff spot near the tip ; 

 rest of upper- parts black, closely mottled with buff; inner webs 

 of primary quills with wide alternate bars of chestfiut and black ; 

 throat whitish-brown; chest and breast pale brown and marked 

 like the back ; rest of under-parts rufous-buff irregularly mottled 

 with black ; outer tail-feathers dark chestnut with some b ] ack 

 mottling. Total length, 19-6 inches; wing, 9*1 ; tail, 7-9 ; tar- 

 sus, 3-1. 



Range. — Mountain forests of Formosa. 



This species was discovered by the late Mr. R. Swinhoe, 

 for many years H.M. Consul in Formosa, who gives the follow- 

 ing account : — 



Habits. — " I was informed by my hunters that a second 

 species of Pheasant, which was denominated by the Chinese 

 colonists Wa-koe, was found in the interior mountains ; that 

 it was a true jungle bird, frequenting the wild hill-ranges of the 

 aborigines, and rarely descending to the lower hills that border 

 on the Chinese territory, and that in the evening and early 

 morning the male was in the habit of showing himself on an 

 exposed branch or roof of a savage's hut, uttering his crowing 

 defiant note, while he strutted and threw up his tail like a 

 rooster. I offered rewards and encouraged my men to do 

 their utmost to procure me specimens of this bird, and I was 

 so far successful that I managed to obtain a pair, but in my 

 trip to the interior it was in vain that I sought to get a view of 

 it in its native haunts, and to make acquaintance with it in a 

 State of nature, " 



