240 BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 



feathers darker ; tail dark brown ; winglet blackish ; scapulars and ter- 

 tiaries dark brown ; secondaries ashy brown ; primaries black with white 

 shafts ; lesser and median wing-coverts hair-brown ; greater coverts ashy 

 brown ; under wing-coverts brown, edged with whity brown ; no indication 

 of a breast-patch. 



The change to mature plumage consists in the feathers turning white 

 and in the assumption of a crest and a breast-patch. The full plumage is 

 probably not attained till the third or fourth year. 



Adult in full breeding -plumage. The whole plumage a beautiful rosy pink ; 

 primaries black with white shafts, primary-coverts entirely black ; secon- 

 daries varying from blackish in those next the primaries to ashy in those 

 next the body ; breast-patch ochreous yellow. The female has a crest, 

 about four inches long, of narrow straight pointed feathers directed back- 

 wards and lying rather flat. The male, as far as my own experience goes, 

 never has a crest. 



It may seem extraordinary that the male bird should not have a crest, 

 but I am of opinion that such is the case. Although constantly shooting 

 crested females in Burmah, I never met with a crested male, notwithstand- 

 ing that many males I shot were in the full rosy adult plumage. Dr. 

 Jerdon seems to have described the male of this species under the name 

 of P. onocrotalus, for he describes the plumage as white, the wing as being 

 28 inches in length, and the occiput with a very small crest of the same kind 

 as the feathers on the neck. His P. mitratus is the female, with a long 

 pendent crest of narrow feathers 4 or 5 inches long, and wing 27 inches. 



The change from the plumage of the young to that of the adult is very 

 gradual. The scapulars and tertiaries are not pure white till the bird is 

 aged ; as a rule the feathers of both these parts are edged with black lor 

 many years; but all traces of these edgings eventually disappear. Much 

 importance has been attached to these same black edges, arid they have 

 been thought to be a characteristic of P. javanicus ; but the European 

 bird possesses them in an equal degree with the Asiatic, as may be observed 

 in the numerous individuals of the European species to be found in the 

 zoological gardens of England and the continent. 



The female does not have a crest till she is aged ; and females in per- 

 fectly pure adult white plumage may be shot in Burmah without a vestige 

 of a crest except a few curly feathers. In this state they are P.javanicus, 

 the type of which, now in the British Museum, is nothing more or less 

 than a crestless adult female of the present species. 



The breast-patch is assumed as soon as the general colour of the plumage 

 becomes white ; it is always present, but becomes more brilliant at the 

 breeding-season, and both sexes have it. 



The winglet remains black till long after all traces of the black edges 

 to the scapulars and tertiaries have disappeared. It changes to white 



