On the Silver- Pheasants of Burma. 93 



The dimensions of the three species are as follows; — 



The specimen of P. longipennis here considered is that 

 procured by Mr. J. ffolliott Darling, near Salisbury, in 

 Rhodesia (cf. Sharpe, Bull. B. O. C. xii. p. 49). The 

 type-specimen in Berlin was obtained in Northern Nyasa- 

 land. 



EXPLANATION 7 OF PLATE IV. 



Fig. 1. Pitta reichenowi, from the typical specimen. 



2. Pitta longipennis, from the specimen procured by Mr. J. ffolliott 

 Darling, near Salisbury, in Rhodesia. 



Both the figures are reduced to -?ths of the natural size. 



IX. — On the Silver-Pheasants of Burma. 

 By Eugene W. Oates, F.Z.S. 



"When I wrote the first part of the t Manual of the Game- 

 Birds of India' in 1898, the material for dealing with the 

 Silver-Pheasants was very scanty. Now, owing to the 

 assistance of numerous kind friends, whose names will be 

 found in the following notes, the number of specimens of 

 these Pheasants in the Natural History Museum has been 

 much augmented and some rare forms have been acquired. 

 I wish, therefore, to revise my account of the Burmese species 

 and to correct some mistakes into which I have fallen. 



The old notion that these birds interbreed in a wild state 

 and produce a confusion of forms must now be abandoned. 

 There is nothing to support this view. The larger the scries 

 of these Pheasants becomes, the more clearly and distinctly 

 docs it appear that they are well-defined species, bearing no 

 particular resemblance to any other Pheasants the range of 

 which they ov( rlap. 



There is a point about these Pheasants which is very 



