234 PENCILLED PHEASANT. 



males being more brilliant in colour ; and in the 

 third year the plumage attains its utmost brilliancy. 

 Old females sometimes put on the plumage of 

 the males, like many other gallinaceous birds, but 

 this is rare : they will also breed with the com- 

 mon Pheasant, as has been already noticed in the 

 account of that bird. 



PENCILLED PHEASANT. 

 (Phasianus Nycthemerus.) 



PH. albus ; cristd, guld, pectore, abdomineque nigro-violaceo ; 



caudd cuneata, compressd. (Femina.fuscescens^fiisco undulala, 



rectricibus lateralibus albo nigroque macula t is. ) 

 White Pheasant, with the crest, throat, breast, and abdomen, 



dark violet ; the tail wedge-shaped and compressed. (Female 



brownish, waved with brown 5 the lateral tail-feathers spot- 

 ted with black and white.) 

 Phasianus Nycthemerus. Linn. Syst. Nat. 1. 272. Gmel. Syst. 



Nat. 1. 743. 6. Lath. Ind. Orn. 2. 631. G.Temm. Gall. 



Ind.p. 665. 



Phasianus albus Sinensis. Briss. Orn. 1. 276. 5. 

 Faisan noir et blanc, ou le bicolor. Buff. Ois. 2. 35Q. Buff. 



Pl.JEnl. 123. male, 124. female. Temm. Pig. et Gall. 2. p. 



281.pl. 2. /. 6. 7. 

 Black and white Pheasant. Albin. Birds. 3. 37. Edw. Birds. 



pi. 66. 

 Pencilled Pheasant. Lath. Gen. Syn. 4. 719- 



THE male of this species is nearly three feet in 

 length : the beak and irides yellow : sides of the 



