POLYPLECTRON. 17 



green, surrounded by a black ring and an outer gray ring; longest 

 coverts tipped with a narrow line of pale buff; rectrices tipped with lines 

 of black, gray, white, and gray, the white line narrow and sharply defined ; 

 under parts all black, except tail-coverts which are speckled with buff. 

 "Bill black tipped with pale horn-color; eyes chocolate-brown; legs, feet, 

 and nails brown." (Bourns and Worcester.) A male from Iwahig, Pa- 

 lawan, measures: Wing, 190; tail, 240; exposed culmen, 28; bill from 

 nostril, 15; tarsus, 66; middle toe with claw, 56. 



Female. Top of head and a short crest dark brown ; sides of face, chin, 

 and throat white; remainder of the plumage brown, more rusty above 

 and on wings, finely speckled with dark brown and black; tail with the 

 large round metallic spots of the male replaced by black spots having 

 little or no metallic color. A female from Iwahig, Palawan, measures: 

 Wing, 180; tail, 183; exposed culmen, 22; bill from nostril, 13; tarsus, 

 54; middle toe with claw, 48. 



Young. "An immature male resembles the female, but has tail and 

 greater coverts like those of adult male, though the ocelli are much 

 smaller and absent on inner webs of all the tail-feathers except three 

 middle pairs; one or two feathers of mantle have a metallic bluish 

 green patch in the middle and traces are apparent of black plumage on 

 mantle, wing-coverts, throat, and under parts." (Grant.) 



This beautiful peacock pheasant, the "pavo real" of the Spaniards, is 

 confined to the Island of Palawan. Bourns and Worcester state that 

 the species is extremely shy, all of their specimens, including 18 adults 

 beside young, being taken by natives in snares. They give the following 

 average measurements: Eleven males, length, 519; wing, 180; tail, 222:, 

 culmen, 24; tarsus, 61; seven females, length, 420; wing, 166; tail, 150; 

 culmen, 22; tarsus, 55. 



Bourns and Worcester have shown that the character upon which P. 

 nehrkornce was based i.e., narrow superciliary stripes not confluent on 

 nape is variable to a great degree and not dependent upon age, so 

 napoleonis is accepted as the correct specific name for the Palawan bird, 

 although originally applied to a specimen supposed to have come from 

 Luzon, an island in which the genus certainly does not exist. 



Major John E. White has secured a fine series of these birds at the 

 Iwahig penal colony, and he states that he has seldom seen the birds 

 until snared by the natives. 



Order HEMIPODII. 



BUTTON QUAILS. 



Culmen curved but not hooked; nostrils opening by a slit beneath a 

 horny scale; tarsi naked, without spurs; hind toe absent; wings short, 

 rounded, and curved to the body; rectrices short, soft, and nearly hidden 

 by the long fluffy coverts. 

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