THE GAME BIRDS OF INDIA. 899 



hillside alongside the bamboo. When there ^^'as snow on the 

 ground, they were very conspicnons, the females showing as 

 brown blobs, and the males looking like little patches of 

 vegetation with crimson flowers. They would make no attempt 

 to move nntil fired at, and even then would often settle again 

 almost within gunshot. We found them sometimes in flocks 

 numbering about forty, or even more, though, as a rule, they 

 were in parties of about a dozen. 



" Those we shot had been feeding on seeds and vegetable 

 matter mixed with insects." 



ItHACtEKES TIBETANUS. 



Molesicorth's Blood Pheasant. 



Ithagenes tihetanus. — Stuart Baker, Bull. B.O.O., XXXV., p. 18 

 (1914) (Tela Range, Tibet); Id. ihid. (1915), p. 122. 



Vernacidar names. — None recorded. 



Description — Adidt Male. — Forehead crimson, with this exception, 

 the whole upper plumage as in cruentus, but the white marking on 

 the nape much less developed than in that bird. Lores, a small 

 supercilium and feathers round bare orbital skin crimson, together 

 with the chin, throat and anterior portion of ear-coverts ; posterior 

 ear-coverts black with broad white central streaks. Extreme base 

 of throat and lower neck very pale greenish-yellow, some of the 

 central feathers margined with black ; sides of the neck the same 

 with the black still less in extent. 



Breast yellow, faintly tinged with green, and each feather broad- 

 ly, but rather irregularly bordered and splashed with crimson, far 

 more so than in any specimen of cruentus. Flanks and abdomen 

 grey with broad yellow-green streaks, and a few splashes of crim- 

 son of the former ; centre of abdomen buff" and grey, the former 

 predominating. Under tail coverts crimson with yellow spots at 

 the tips. The tail feathers are a good deal darker than in cruentus, 

 but are paler than in liuseri. Wings as in cruentus, but with the 

 green less pronounced. 



Colours of soft loarts. — Legs brilliant crimson-red, soles paler and 

 more dusky, claws black ; space round eye appears to have been 

 orange ; bill black, nostrils crimson. 



Measurements. — Total length about 15" ( = 381-0 mm.); wing 

 7-75" (= 196-8 mm.) ; bill at point -7" (^17-7 mm.), and from 

 gape -8" (=20-3 mm.); tarsus 2-35" (=59-7 mm.); mid toe 2-0" 

 (=50-8 mm.) ; claw -55" (=13-9 mm.) ; tail 6-75" (=171-4 mm). 



Female, not hnown. 



Bistrih'ution. — The one bird as yet obtained was shot above 

 Tawang on the Tela Range in Tibet. It would appear likely there-, 

 fore that this Blood Pheasant will be found to inhabit the countrv 



