PHASIANIDAE 2 I 3 



Upper Mekong possesses a yellow nuchal collar; P. darwini of East 

 China has grey bases to the outer tail-feathers ; P. xanthospila 

 exhibiting both. These monogamous birds attain a somewhat 

 higher elevation than the Cheer, and utter a loud, deep crow^ 

 but otherwise the habits are the same. The five to nine pointed 

 eggs are buff, speckled or blotched with red-brown. 



Gennaeus 1 has a long vaulted tail, a fine crest, naked sides to 

 the face covered with red skin or wattles, and metatarsi with a 

 single spur in the male. In G. allicristatus of the Western 

 Himalayas the crest is white, the head and upper parts being black 

 with purple and blue reflexions and white margins to the dorsal 

 feathers, the primaries and abdomen brown, and the breast 

 whitish. The female is reddish - brown, with delicate black 

 markings on the grey-margined upper feathers, and shews white 

 below and on the wing-coverts. G. leucomelanus, with blue-black 

 crest, inhabits Nepal ; G. muthura (melanotus), without white on 

 the lower back, occurs in Sikkim and Bhutan ; G. horsfieldi, 

 with black breast, extending from East Bhutan to North Arakan 

 and Upper Burma. All the above species have the tail black, 

 or rarely vermiculated with white ; but in G. lineatus of Burma, 

 Siam, and Tenasserim, and the very similar G. andersoni of 

 Upper Burma and West Yunnan, it is banded alternately with 

 black and white, and the median rectrices are even whiter. 

 G. edwardsi inhabits Annam. G. nyctliemerus, the Silver 

 Pheasant of South China, embroidered as a badge on mandarins' 

 dresses, and introduced into England early in last century, has 

 an extremely long white tail, obliquely marked with black on 

 the lateral feathers, a purplish-black crown, crest and lower sur- 

 face, white back of the neck and upper parts with crescentic 

 black lines on the latter, and naked red face. G. swinhoii of 

 Formosa is easily distinguished from its allies by the bronzy- 

 crimson scapulars, white crest, upper back, and median rectrices ; 

 the remaining plumage being bluish- or purplish -black with 

 a glossy dark green band upon the wing. The female is mottled 

 with rufous, black, and buff, and has a short crest, while that sex 

 of the Silver Pheasant is browner, and exhibits white on the 

 outer tail-feathers. These " Kalleges " a name strictly appli- 

 cable to the first four species only frequent thin forests in low 

 valleys, and are but slightly gregarious ; they perch on trees, and 

 1 Euplocamus and Gallophasis are synonyms of the above. 



