PHEASANTS. 



217 



parts are black, glossed with deep blue ; the tail and long coverts black, with blue and 

 green reflections. The bare skin of the face is crimson ; the legs and feet red. The 

 silver-pheasants, of which the well-known E. nycthemerus of China is typical, are 

 large birds with the entire upper parts and tail white, and all the feathers are more or 

 less minutely mottled with black. The Chinese species exhibits more white than any 

 of the others, and the two central tail-feathers are nearly pure white, the breast and 

 under parts bluish black. Besides China, these birds are natives of Burmah and 



FIG. 102. Euplocamus nyctliemerus, silver-pheasant. 



various parts of India. They are forest-loving birds, 

 ascending as high as three thousand to four thousand 

 feet upon the mountains, apparently omnivorous, feed- 

 ing upon insects, grain, seeds, etc., not gregai'ious, 

 and when disturbed utter a peculiar clicking sound. 

 They are pugnacious, and the males are continually 

 fighting. The E. lineatns breeds in March, the hen 

 laying seven or eight pale-yellowish eggs, minutely 



pitted all over, in a slight hollow in the ground, thinly lined with leaves and a few 

 feathers. The third division contains the kalij or kaleege pheasants, as the term is vari- 

 ously spelled. They inhabit parts of India, Nepal, Bhotan, Sikkim, Assam, Arakan, etc., 

 are four species possibly more in number, with long pendant crests, upper parts of 

 a generally glossy black plumage in some species, with the rump feathers margined with 

 white ; breast and flanks covered with buffy-white lanceolate feathers. One species, E. 

 horsfieldi, has the under parts bluish-black, like the back. The tails are generally of a 

 bluish-black color. These birds range from the foot of the hills to eight thousand 



