A REVISION OF TRE GENUS GENN^US. 679 



The only three specimens of females in the British Museum Col- 

 lection were all collected on Muleyit Mountain, whence no male bird 

 had yet been obtained, and I was extremely doubtful as to accepting 

 them as proved females of the male bird which Gates called sharioei. 

 I have now, however, a pair of birds which I owe to Mr. J. P. Cook, 

 shot together, so that I have no longer any hesitation in giving 

 sharpei sub-specific rank. Except for the bold white marking on 

 the flanks, the male sharpei is very like the darkest specimens of 

 rufipes which Gates named atlayi, but it is darker still than these 

 birds with narrower bars on the upper plumage and wings. 



Distribution. — The type was obtained from Dargwin at an eleva- 

 tion of some 2,500 feet, and it has also been procured at Thandoung 

 and Papun. The three females were taken in Muleyit about 3,500 

 feet, and the pair of birds sent me were shot near Rahang, N.-E. of 

 Muleyit. 



Its range is probably the Sal win Valley from about the 17° of 

 latitude as far North as Karennee, and it will also probably be found 

 to extend West and East to the Sittang and Me Wung Rivers, res- 

 pectively, in so far as the country suits it. Its stronghold, however, 

 will probably be found to be the higher ranges of the Bree Country 

 in the North and Muleyit in the South. 



It is difficult to advance any theory as to why the dialler ver- 

 miculated upper surface of the plumage of the Western forms should 

 here be in gradual course of transformation to bolder lines of black 

 and white, but it is possible that such a colouration is more protec- 

 tive in open sunlit country than it would be in the soft grey shades 

 of thin forest. 



Genn^us nycthemerus. 



The Chinese Silver Pheasant. 



J Plate i, fig. 3 ; 2 Plate iii, fig. 6. 



Phasianus nycthemerits. — Linn, S. N., i, p. 272 (1768); Lath, 

 Ind. Orn., ii, p. 631 (1790). 



P^uplocamus nycthemerus. — J. E. Gray, 111. Ind. Zool., ii, pi. 38, 

 fig. 2 (1834) ; Blyth, Cat. Mus. As. Soc, p. 244 (1849). 



JEuplocamus nydhemerus. — Gould, B. Asia, vii, p. 17 (1859). 



Gennceus nycthemerus. — Ggilvie-Grant, Cat. Birds, B. M., xxii, p 

 307 (1893); id. Hand-List, Game B., i, p. 277 (1895); Gates, Oat. 

 Eggs, B. M., i, p. 55 (1901); Ghigi, Mem. Acad. Bologna (6) v, p. 

 138 (1908); Ingram, Nov. Zool., xix, p. 270 (1912). 



Type ? 



Description : adult male. — The upper plumage white with narrow 

 longitudinal lines of black, finest and very often broken on the neck 

 and back, and broadest, though still much narrower than the white, 

 on the wings and outer tail coverts and tail feathers ; two, and 



