446 THE KOKLASS PHEASANTS OF THE HIMALAYAS. 



crown green, turninoj into sandy brown ; mesial crest sandy 

 brown, with the lateral sincipital tufts black, tipped with green ; 

 sides of the neck white ; mantle black, some of the feathers 

 edged with stone grey, and some with sandy brown ; back 

 grey, each feather with a black streak down the centre ; upper 

 tail-coverts and rump grey, each feather centred buff with a 

 dark brown margin to the buff on each side. Tail — central 

 feathers reddish brown, mottled with black ; the remaining 

 feathers deep brown, nearly black, mottled with chestnut on 

 the outer web at the basal half, tipped with white, and narrowly 

 edged with light brown ; throat and forehead greenish black ; 

 centre of breast and abdomen deep chestnut, each feather nar- 

 rowly margined with black ; sides of the breast gre}'', with a 

 broad black central stripe and black shaft to each feather ; 

 flanks similar to the sides of the breast in general style, but 

 the feathers are white shafted, and the central stripe is much 

 broader and has a brownish tinge instead of being pure black ; 

 thigh-coverts, somewhat similar to the flanks, but paler, and 

 with a white central streak in the brown ; under tail-coverts, 

 deep chestnut, with a broad- white tip, and a black bar dividing 

 the white tip from the chestnut ; scapularies and tertiaries 

 brown, with yellowish brown edgings, and a narrow central 

 streak of raw sienna, pale-shafted. Wings — quills brown, broadly 

 margined with sandy yellow ; the greater coverts, grey, nar- 

 rowly centred with black, and having the shafts tipped with 

 white ; the lesser coverts of the same type as the scapu- 

 laries. 



" Female. — Somewhat similar to the female of P. macrolopha^ 

 but with all the markings more strongly pronounced, and of a 

 generally darker hue. I have seen five specimens of the 

 female of this species, but have none with me now, and I un- 

 fortunately omitted to take a detailed description at the time. 

 In addition to the general description given above, the locality 

 in which my specimen was obtained will be sufficient to fix the 

 identity of the species ; for the geographical distribution of 

 this group of Pheasants is well marked. 



" There are, including the species now described, six kinds of 

 * Pucras' or ' Koklass' Pheasants known, all of which inhabit 

 the vast mountainous chain which extends across Asia from 

 Afghanistan to near the Pacific Ocean in a more or less unbroken 

 series of ranges. Each of its species has its own particular 

 section of this tract, in which it occurs to the exclusion of the 

 other species ; but to what extent the range of each species 

 overlaps that of the next in geographical order is, as yet, very 

 imperfectly known, and it is not improbable that hybrids may 

 be met with between any of the two species on the borders of 



