GOLDEN PHEASANT. 173 



and the tail comparatively shorter. The upper part of the 

 head is tawny, with a greenish gloss ; above the eye are 

 two white stripes, and the rest of the head and neck are 

 of a deep and brilliant green, glossed with violet; this 

 colour being terminated abruptly by a snow-white collar 

 just above the breast : the feathers of the back have 

 their centres black, and surrounded with an undulated 

 whitish band, the tip terminating in a black arrow- 

 shaped spot: the shoulder feathers are black at the base; 

 marked in the centre with a whitish pupil surrounded 

 by a black ring; and chestnut, with a purple gloss, 

 towards their tips : the tail covers are light green, with 

 loose silky barbs : the breast is of a brilliant reddish 

 purple, having the sides pale yellow : the under plumage 

 and thighs are black, glossed with violet ; and the tail 

 feathers are olive green in the middle, the edges shaded 

 with violet red, and crossed with broad black bands. 

 The female differs considerably from that of the common 

 species, in having a stripe of very short dusky feathers 

 beneath each eye ; the plumage, also, is duller, and the 

 breast is remarkable by being considerably spotted : the 

 black bars on the tail are much more conspicuous in 

 this than in the male sex. 



The ring -necked pheasant, so common in aviaries, isal. 

 most always of a hybrid race, produced between this and 

 the common species : it unites, in a greater or a less de- 

 gree, the characters of both ; but the white ring is always 

 much narrower than in the pure species, and is frequently 

 almost obliterated. 



The Golden Pheasant. 

 Nycthemcr us pictus, Su\ ( Fiff. 25. ) 

 Phasianus pictus, Livn. Nycthemorus pictus, Class, of Birds, 

 ii. p. 341. Painted Pheasant, Edwards, pi. 6S, 69. 



The species of this subgenus of pheasants are dis- 

 tinguished from those of PhnManua, by the head being 

 more or less naked, and, in the males, possessing either a 

 fleshy or a feathered crest ; thus forming a link of con- 



