NOTES. 119 



Germain's Polyplectron has been heretofore known only from 

 Cochin China, and it may be (for they were picked up in a 

 hut in a Looshai village) that these feathers really came thence, 

 but it seems almost more likely that the range of P. Germaini 

 extends further than has hitherto been supposed. 



My original description of the tail feathers, with pale buff 

 spots on a hair-broivn ground, somewhat more sparsely set than 

 in tibetanus, with the elongated oval, emerald green eyes, so 

 exactly tallies with the corresponding feathers of Germaini, 

 that I am rather surprised that, when alluding to the matter in 

 his letter to the Ibis of June 1873, Mr. Elliot did not point 

 out that the feathers probably belonged to that species. 



Mr. G. R. Gray, in his Gen. of Birds (Vol. III., Order V. 

 Galling ; Family III. Piiasianiad^e ; Genus Gallophasis ; 

 the paper dated January 1845, but perhaps not published until 

 1849, which date the Vol. bears) separated the Gallus Ignitus 

 of Vieillot's Gal. des. Ois. (PI. 207, ^ 1825) which was also 

 the Euplocamus ignitus of his brother's, 111. Ind. Zool. (II. PI. 

 39, p 1834) from Phasianus ignitus of Lath. (Ind. Orn. 

 Suppl., p. lxi.,? 1792) and Shaw (Nat. Misc., PI. 321) under 

 the title of Gallophasis Vieilloti. 



In 1852 Mr. Gould (B. of As., p. IV., PI. 8) enunciated his 

 concurrence in this separation, but failed to define the difference 

 between the two species very accurately. 



In 1863, (P. Z. S., p. 118) Dr. P. L. S. Sclater clearly diag- 

 nosed the two species : — 



E. Vieilloti. 



$ ; Niger, purpureo splendens, dorso imo ignescenti caslaneo ; 

 lateribus albo notatis ; rectricibus quatuor mediis fulvescenti albis.* 



E. Ignitus. 



$ : Niger, purpureo splendens dorso imo igneo ferrugineo : 

 lateribus pallide castaueis, nigro varus : rectr. 4 mediis albis. 



He added, " in the latter species the flanks are pale chestnut, 

 varied with purplish black." 



These characters seemed very intelligible, and I believe were 

 generally accepted ; but in January 1871, Mr. G. D. Elliot, in 

 his Mon. Phas., (Pt. II., PI. 10, letter-press) remarked that the 

 two supposed species were identical — " Vieilloti representing 

 the immature bird which is always streaked with chestnut on 

 the sides and has the central tail feathers brown/' 



In this, there is of course a clerical error, it being ignitus 

 not Vieilloti that has the chestnut on the flanks, but setting 



* This is not quite correct, for in fine freshly-killed birds these feathers are snow- 

 white.— A. 0. H. 



