PHEASANTS. 



423 



EaliJ Pheasants. 



The range of this species includes the mountains of Mantchuria and Northern 

 China. These birds are met with in the pine-forests at an elevation of from 

 ten thousand to twelve thousand feet. They are gregarious in their habits, and 

 forty or fifty may sometimes be met with roosting in company on the pine-trees. 

 Being remarkably hardy birds, they do well in confinement, and soon become 

 exceedingly tame. 



On the lower altitudes of the middle ranges of the Himalaya, 

 and thence through the Burmo-Chinese countries, we meet with 

 pheasants approaching the crested forms of the fire-backed pheasants. Nearly a^ 

 dozen species belong to this group, which includes the Kalij and silver pheasants, 

 as well as the somewhat aberrant Swinhoe's pheasant {Gennoeus swinhoei). All 

 have a more or less elongate recumbent crest of hairy feathers, the sides of the 

 head naked, and the long tail laterally compressed and vaulted, with the middle 

 pair of feathers at least three times the length of the outer ones. The legs of the 

 male are armed with a pair of 

 stout spurs, but in the females 

 these appendages are wanting. 

 The most western form of the 

 genus, the white - crested kalij 

 {G. albocristatus), inhabits the 

 Western Himalaya and Nipal ; 

 the male having the long hairy 

 crest -v^hite, the general colour 

 of the upper-parts black, glossed 

 with purplish and steel-blue, and 

 margined, especially on the rump, 

 with white ; while the fore-part 

 of the neck is dirty white, 

 gradually shading into brown 

 on the under-parts. Proceeding 

 eastwards into Nipal, we meet horskjeld's pheasant. 



with a species (G. leucomelanus), 



differing only in having the crest black, glossed with purple ; while still farther 

 east in Sikhim and Bhutan the darker form (G. melanonotiis) has the black 

 crest of the latter, but the white terminal margins on the feathers of the rump and 

 upper-parts replaced by deep purplish blue. In Bhutan, Assam, and Burma, we 

 find Horsfield's pheasant, which is the darkest of all, the whole plumage being 

 black, glossed with purplish, or steel-blue, and only the lower-back and rump being 

 edged with white ; and we may consider this species as representing the ancestral 

 stock from which all the others have been derived. There are numerous other 

 species, among which we select the silver pheasant (G. nycthemerus) of Southern 

 China, noticeable for its white upper plumage, ornamented with dark markings. 

 Kokiass Including seven species, these pheasants range through the 



Pheasants. Himalaya from Afghanistan to Tibet and Mantchuria. They 

 may all be recognised by the long crest of the cocks, and by the feathers above 

 the ears being elongated to form tufts surpassing the crest in length. The sides 



