214 



THE MACARTNEY COCK. 



Euplocomus ignitus. 

 PLATE XIX. MALE. XX. FEMALE. 



Fire-backed Pheasant of Java, Macartney, Embassy to 

 China, pi. xiii. Phasianus ignitus, Lath. Index Ornitho- 

 logicus. Houpifere Macartney. Gallus Macartney!, 

 Temminck, Pigeons et Gallinaces, ii. p. 273. 



THE first notice of this very beautiful bird is in 

 the description of the embassy to China, under Lord 

 Macartney. It was met with by Sir George Staun- 

 ton in a menagerie at Batavia, and figured in the 

 large Atlas of Plates accompanying the above men- 

 tioned work. Temminck subsequently gave a des- 

 cription of it in his Gallinaceous Birds, made from 

 many specimens received from Sumatra. 



The length of the adult male is about 2 feet. The 

 skin of the nostrils stretches backwards, and covers 

 the sides of the head behind the eyes, and is of a 

 bluish-purple. Upon the centre of the crown there 

 is an upright crest, composed of feathers with a 

 naked shaft, and expanding at the tip into a num- 

 ber of slender barbs, which spread out and form a 

 broadish crown. The head, neck, breast, belly, and 

 upper part of the back, are of a very deep black, 



