BLOOD-FHEASANTS 4 1 7 



appearance than its Indian allies, having the plumage of the head, neck, back, and 

 under-parts black and white, the rest of the upper-parts dark chestnut, ornamented 

 on the wing-coverts with white black-edged spots, and the quills and tail black. 

 The female has the head blackish, the chin and throat white, and the rest of the 

 plumage chestnut, finely pencilled with black. Colonel Legge observes that " the 

 shy habits of this bird would prevent its being detected in most places where it is 

 even abundant, were it not for its noisy cries or cackling, so well known to all 

 who have wandered in the Ceylon jungles. It frequents tangled brakes, thickets 

 in damp nalas, forest near rivers, jungle over hillsides, and in fact any kind of 

 cover which will afford it entire concealment. It runs with great speed, and has 

 a knack of noiselessly beating a retreat at one time, while at another it ventriloquises 

 its exciting notes until the sportsman becomes fairly exasperated, and gives up the 

 attempt he has made to stalk it in disgust. The cock-birds begin to call about six 

 in the morning, and when one has fairly commenced, the curious ascending scale 

 of notes is taken up from one to another until the wood resounds with their cries. 

 They always seem to keep in small parties, which perhaps consist of the young of 

 the year with their parents." The nest, a mere hollow in the ground, is situated 

 in the forest, or in thick jungle, under the shelter of a rock or near the projecting 

 root of a large tree, and it would seem that the full number of the eggs laid is 

 four, but the red spur-fowl {Galloperdix spadiceus) lays as many as ten. 



The pheasant-quail (Ophrysia superciliosa), occurring in the 

 ' north-west of India during the cold season, is probably a native of 

 Tibet, but is so rarely met with that scarcely anything is known of its habits. 

 Never coming into the open, it prefers to skulk in the long grass, whence it can 

 only be flushed with the help of dogs ; and when on the wing its flight is slow and 

 heavy. This is the smallest of the pheasant kind, being no larger than the 

 common quail, but its affinities are with the blood-pheasants, as is shown by 

 the shape of the wing with its short first primary, the length of the tail, and the 

 long rather loose plumage. The male has the general colour grey washed with 

 olive, each feather being edged with black, and the head and throat deep black, the 

 former marked with various white bands. The female has the general colour 

 warm light brown, paler on the under-parts, and spotted and marked with black, 

 while the chin and throat are whitish. The much larger blood-pheasants are 

 represented by three species from Tibet and Western China ; the males being 

 characterised by the peculiar grass-green colour of the plumage. The blood- 

 pheasant {Ithagenes cruentus) found in the higher regions of Nipal, Sikhim, and 

 Bhutan is a handsome bird, the male having the forehead and a ring round the 

 eye black, the crown buff, and the upper-parts grey, washed on the wings with 

 green, and margined on the upper tail-coverts and tail with crimson ; the cheeks, 

 throat, and under tail-coverts being crimson ; and the rest of the under-parts 

 mostly green, with some of the feathers more or less margined with crimson. The 

 naked skin round the eye and the legs are bright coral-red, the latter being some- 

 times armed with no less than four pairs of spurs. The female is mostly brown, 

 lighter on the upper-parts, and reddish below, while the back of the head and nape 

 are slaty grey. Found at elevations ranging from ten thousand to fourteen 

 thousand feet, these birds are abundant in many of the valleys among forests of 



VOL. IV. — 27 



