60 MEDALLION PHEASANT. 



So rapid were their evolutions, that at times it 

 was difficult for the eye to follow them. They 

 had certainly a beautiful appearance, arrayed in 

 their dark plumage, with a tinge of yellow over 

 the male. The male of the widow-bird is like 

 the female for four months of the year, about the 

 spring season. 



There is a species of Irinc/a, or Turnstone, 

 which was lately brought by Captain Duran, 

 who presented it to Mr. Beale : it was caught 

 alive three hundred miles from the nearest land, 

 in lat. 15° north, and 169° east longitude. 



Another beautiful bird, which merits some 

 notice, is that elegant creature, the Tragopan 

 satyrus, or horned Tragopan : it is the Tu, Xou, 

 JVieu, of the Chinese, and may receive an 

 appropriate English name in the Medallion Phea- 

 sant, from a beautiful membrane of resplendent 

 colours, (more or less brilliant, according to the 

 excitement the bird may be in at the time,) 

 which is displayed or contracted at the will of 

 the animal ; at which time its purple horns are 

 also elevated : this appearance is usually observed 

 during the months of January to March, when 

 courting the female. In the contracted state it 

 has merely the appearance of a purple skin under 

 the lower mandible, and sometimes there is not 

 the slightest indication of the existence of any 



