LOP nun A. 87 



chatter. The crow of the male, which is said to sound liko 

 44 /cok-kok-pokrass," is often heard in wild parts of the hills in the 

 morning and evening, and, as with several other Pheasants, is 

 frequently uttered when a gun is fired in the neighbourhood or 

 after a peal of thunder. This bird is swift and difficult to shoot, 

 as it, like other Himalayan Pheasants, often flies with great rapidity 

 down the steep hill-sides ; it is said to be the best of all for the 

 table. It lives chiefly on leaves and buds, but it also feeds on seeds, 

 berries, fruit, and insects. It breeds from April to June, and lays 

 about 9 pale buff eggs, often speckled or thinly blotched with 

 brownish red, and measuring on an average 2'Od by 1*47. They 

 are laid in a hollow scraped in the ground without any nest. 



Genus LOPHURA, Fleming, 1822. 



The Fireback Pheasants, which form the present genus, only 

 differ from Gennceus (1) in having a fuller crest, which occupies 

 the greater part of the crown instead of being confined to the 

 occiput, and forms a brush of bare shafted feathers ending in hair- 

 like plumes ; (2) in the rump of the male being riery bronze-red. 

 The male, too, is more richly metallic in colour, and the female is 

 chestnut above, not brown. 



The tail, of 16 feathers, is laterally compressed, and in the male 

 the median feathers diverge considerably at the ends, the third 

 pair from the middle being slightly the longest ; outer pairs much 

 shorter. 



Three species are known, ranging from South Tenasserim 

 through the Malay Peninsula, Siam, and Cambodia to Sumatra and 

 Borneo. Only one occurs in British Burma. 



1335. Lophura rafa. Vieillot's Fire-backed Pheasant. 



Phasianus rut us, Raffles, Tr. Linn. Soc. xiii, p. 321 (1822). 

 Euplocamus iguitus, apud Gray, in Hai'dw. III. Ind. Zool. ii, p. 39 ; 



myth, Cat. p. 243; id. Birds Bunn. p. 140; nee Shaw $ Xodder. 

 Euplocamus vieillotti, G. It. Gray, List Gen. B. 2nd ed, p. 77 (1841) ; 



Hume, S.F. v, p. 119 ; id. fy Uav. S. F. vi, p. 438; id. # Marsh. 



Game B. \, p. 213, pi.; Hume, Cat. no. 811 quint; Gates, B. B. 



ii, p. 320. 



Euplocamus rufus, Hume, & F. v, p. 121. 

 Lophura rufia, Oyilcie Grant, Cat. B. M. xxii, p, 286. 



Coloration. Male. Plumage above and below deep metallic violet, 

 except on the lower back, which is fiery metallic red, passing into 

 chestnut on the rump ; the median two pairs of tail-feathers and 

 the tips or inner webs of the next pair, which are white; the 

 feathers of the sides of the breast and the flanks, which have 

 fusiform white shaft-stripes ; and the quills, outer tail-feathers, 

 middle of breast, and abdomen, which are black. 



Female. Upper plumage chestnut-rufous, finely vermiculatecl 

 with black ; the head, hind neck, and upper back sometimes 

 not. vermiculatecl ; quills and tail-feathers the same, inner webs 

 of quills darker, the rufous mottling disappearing on the first 



