PHASIANIDAE 201 



Pucrasia, and Phasianus have elongated ear-coverts or feathers 

 behind the ear, the white plumes of the first-named being 

 especially remarkable and common to both sexes ; an erectile 

 cape surmounts the nape in-Chrysolophus ; Meleagris has a peculiar 

 patch of long bristles on the breast, Bonasa a ruff on the sides 

 of the neck ; Gallus and Acryllium have hackles or lanceolate 

 feathers in various parts, moulted in the former at least 

 during the summer. All these decorations are absent or less 

 pronounced in the females, which are, as a rule, dull in colour. 



The head is entirely naked in Meleagris, and is covered with 

 caruncles, an erectile process hanging from the forehead ; a pair 

 of long fleshy horns above the eyes distinguish Ceriornis, which 

 has in addition a large wattle on the throat ; a comb of similar 

 substance is accompanied by a single median or two pairs of 

 lateral wattles in Gallus ; while the sides of the face, the orbits, or 

 the fore-neck, are bare in many genera. The male of Zohiophasis 

 has the head nearly naked, with no less than three pairs of w^attles ; 

 though the female has but one rudimentary pair of the latter, and 

 only the cheeks unfeathered. In all these cases the skin and 

 outgrowths are red or blue. The head and neck are bare in the 

 iSTumidinae, except for a crest in Guttera, a crescentic nuchal band 

 of feathers in Acryllium, and a line of plumage down the crown 

 in Phasidus ; wattles occur at the angles of the gape in Guttera 

 and Niimida, both these and the naked skin being blue and red 

 throughout the Sub-family, save in Phasidus, where the latter is 

 yellow, and in Agelastes, where it is red and white. The bony casque 

 of JVumida is red or horn-coloured. The Tetraoninae have merely 

 a little red or yellow skin over the eye. In females all the fleshy 

 outgrowths are much smaller or absent, throughout the Family. 



Air-sacs of orange skin lie below the side - feathers of the 

 neck in the males of Gentrocercus, Dendragapus, and Tympanuclius, 

 and become visible when inflated ; they are supposed to produce 

 the booming ventriloquistic sound, uttered in the breediug season. 

 Bonasa has a naked space in a similar position, l;)ut its drumming 

 is stated to be caused by the wings. Pedioecetes can hardly be 

 said to have air-sacs, yet it also drums, while the exact nature of 

 the corresponding sounds made by Tetrao tirogcdlus and Lyrurus 

 tetrix is uncertain. The " gobble " of the domestic Turkey is a 

 parallel instance, in so far as it is uttered during excitement. 



The members of this Family, which range in size from the 



