2 1 88 THE GAME BIRDS AND RAILS 



peculiarly-feathered head, the whole of the lower back, rump, and upper tail coverts 

 white, and a white band across the chestnut tail. 



The crestless firebacked pheasants from the Malayan region are 



about the size of bantam hens, and further resemble these birds in the 

 Pheasants 



shape of their rather short and vaulted tails. In two species (Acomus 

 erythrophthalmus and A. pyronotus) the males have the lower back and rump fiery 

 bronze red, while the females are entirely black, glossed with purplish or steel blue, 

 and armed with spurs like the male; but in the third, from Western Sumatra, the 

 male has the plumage entirely black, and thus closely resembles the females of the 

 other species. Closely allied to the above are the crested firebacked pheasants, in- 

 habiting the same countries, but ranging farther north into Tenasserim, the Shan 

 States, and Cochin-China. The males are adorned with a full, erect crest, com- 

 posed of bare-shafted feathers, supporting a bunch of plumes at the extremity, the 

 sides of the head are naked and covered with large wattles, and the tail is long and 

 shaped somewhat like that of the jungle fowl. The male of Vieillot's fireback (Lop- 

 hurarufa) is further characterized by having the neck, mantle, and breast purplish 

 blue, the lower back and rump bronze red, and the middle tail feathers white. All 

 the rest of the under parts are black, the feathers of the sides and flanks with white 

 shaft stripes, the naked facial skin and wattles bright blue, the legs and feet ver- 

 milion, and the strong spurs whitish. The female has the crest less developed, and 

 the general color of the plumage chestnut, the throat white, the feathers of the neck 

 and chest margined with white on the sides, the breast and sides of the belly black, 

 mottled with chestnut and edged with white, and the rest of the under parts white, 

 mottled with black. The soft parts are like those of the male, but paler, and there 

 are no spurs on the legs. 



One of the most splendid of the group is Bulwer's pheasant (Lobio- 



phasis bulweri*} of North Borneo, in which the male has no less than 

 Pheasant r 



thirty-two tail feathers, and the female two pairs less. In the adult 



male the neck and chest are deep crimson, the rest of the plumage mostly black, 

 each feather being edged with steel blue at the extremity, and the long, curved tail 

 pure white. The head is almost entirely naked, having only a few feathers down 

 the middle of the crown, and ornamented with three pairs of elongate wattles, all 

 being bright blue, while the legs, feet, and spurs are red. 



The five species of eared pheasants, from Central and Eastern Asia, 



af p are birds of large size, their loose hairy plumage making them look 



even larger than they really are. In all except Crossoptilum leucurum, 



in which the male appears to have more white in the tail than the female, the 



plumage of the sexes is alike, although the females lack the blunt spurs of the 



males. The top of the head is clothed with soft, curly feathers, the sides of the 



face being naked and covered with warts, while the ear coverts are produced into 



long white tufts on each side of the head. The tail is long, full, and rounded, the 



number of feathers varying from twenty to twenty-four in the different species, and 



the extremities of the middle pairs being much curved, with the webs long and free. 



In Hodgson's eared pheasant (C. tibetanum} of Tibet and Western China, the 



whole of the plumage is white, with the exception of the black top of the head, the 



