JOURNAL 



OF THE 



Bombay Natural History Society. 



Oct. 1916. Vol. XXIV. No. 4. 



THE GAME BIRDS OF INDIA, BURMA AND CEYLON. 



BY 



E. C. Stuart Baker, F.L.S., F.Z.S., M.B.O.U. 

 Part XX. 



With a Colo2tred Plate. 



Phasianid^. 

 Genns—CBOSSOPTILON. 



The Genus CrossoiMlon contains those birds popularly" known as 

 " Eared Pheasants " from the fact that their ear-coverts are so 

 prolonged that they stick out well behind the head like two small 

 horns. In colour they vary from almost pure white to a dark 

 slate grey or cinereous brown, and in general appearance are, 

 perhaps, closest to the pheasants of the genus Oennoeus, but differ 

 very much in the character of their tails, which are \evj broad at 

 the base, less compressed, and Avith the webs very broad, soft and 

 decomposed. 



The tail feathers number from 20 to 24 in different species. The 

 group containing tibetanum and drouynii have 20 rectrices, man- 

 churicmn has 22 and cmritum has 24. C. harmani appears to have 

 onl}^ 20 but all the skins I have been able to examine were in 

 heavy moult. The wings are rounded in typical pheasant shape, 

 the fifth and sixth primaries being the longest, and the first com- 

 paratively short ; the sides of the head are naked, red and covered 

 with fine papillte. The males have short, blunt spurs on their 

 tarsi which are not found on the females. 



The sexes are apparently similar in colour, but it may be that 

 females retain the darker colouration of the first plumage longer 

 than the males. 



