2IQO 



THE GAME BIRDS AND RAILS 



twelve thousand feet. They are gregarious in their habits, and forty or fifty may 

 sometimes be met with roosting in company on the pine trees. Being remarkably- 

 hardy birds, they do well in confinement, and soon become exceedingly tame. 



On the lower altitudes of the middle ranges of the Himalayas, and 



a ^ thence through the Burmo-Chinese countries, we meet with pheasants 



Pheasants 



approaching the crested forms of the firebacked pheasants. Nearly a 



dozen species belong to this group, which includes the kalij and silver pheasants, 

 as well as the somewhat aberrant Swinhoe's pheasant (Gennceus swinhoei}. All 

 have a more or less elongated recumbent crest of hairy feathers, the sides of the 

 head naked, and the long tail laterally compressed and vaulted, with the middle 

 pair of feathers at least three times the length of the outer ones. The legs of the 



male are armed with a pair of 

 stout spurs, but in the females 

 these appendages are wanting. 

 The most western form of the 

 genus, the white - crested kalij 

 (G. albocristatus} , inhabits the 

 Western Himalayas, and Nipal, 

 the male having the long, hairy 

 crest white, the general color 

 of the upper parts black, glossed 

 with purplish and steel blue, and 

 margined, especially on the 

 rump, with white, while the fore 

 part of the neck is dirty white, 

 gradually shading into brown 

 on the under parts. Proceeding 

 eastward into Nipal, we meet 

 with a species (G. leucomelanus) , 



differing only in having the crest black, glossed with purple, while still farther 

 east in Sikkim and Bhutan the darker form (G. melanonotus) has the black crest of 

 the latter, but the white terminal margins on the feathers of the rump and upper 

 parts replaced by deep purplish blue. In Bhutan, Assam, and Burma, we find 

 Horsfield's pheasant, which is the darkest of all, the whole plumage being black, 

 glossed with purplish, or steel blue, and only the lower back and rump being edged 

 with white; we may consider this species as representing the ancestral stock 

 from which all the others have been derived. There are numerous other species, 

 among which we select the silver pheasant (G. nycthemerus} of Southern China, 

 noticeable for its white upper plumage, ornamented with dark markings. 



Including seven species, these pheasants range through the Hima- 

 ^ rom Afghanistan to Tibet and Manchuria. They may all be 

 recognized by the long crest of the cocks, and by the feathers above 

 the ears being elongated to form tufts surpassing the crest in length. The sides 

 of the head are feathered, and there is no marked naked space surrounding the eye; 

 the tail is elongated and wedge shaped, and the upper tail coverts are long, extend- 



PHEASANT. 



Koklass 



Pheasants 



