A REVISION OF THE GENUS GENNjEUS. 686 



Advlt female. — Appears to be like that of nycthemerus rather 

 than that of rufipes, though birds on the West and South-West of 

 the inter Sal win-Mekong District somewhat approach the latter bird. 

 I The tail of the female is longer on an average than that of rufipes. 



Distribution. — The district lying between the Sal win and Mekong 

 Rivers as far South as the 20" latitude, where it meets sharp)ei. 



It is only after long consideration, and, even then, with some 

 hesitation that I accept this form as a sub-species. 



The type of ripponi was a bird sent by Gates to Sharpe, who 

 separated it from other forms under this name, and then returned the 

 skin to Gates who, unaware that Sharpe had named it, again sepa- 

 rated it as jonesi, so that the one skin is the type for the two species. 



There is no doubt that if we make two geographical groups of the 

 Silver Pheasants inhabiting the Irrawaddy-Salwin and the Salwin- 

 Mekong Districts, it is easy to say that the one group differs from 

 the other on an average in the respects already mentioned, but at the 

 same time, it is equally undoubted that from the second named 

 group one can easily pick out individuals matching rufipjes on the 

 one side, and again nycthe'inerus on the other. Thus a specimen — 

 B. M., No. 97.9.2.1 — shot 20 miles East of Keng-tung is exactly 

 like a specimen of true nycthemerus shot at Fokhien. I do not 

 think that nycthemerus rufipes and n. ripponi are the same, but I feel 

 doubtful if I am justified in dividing rip'poni from nycthemerus itself. 



There are nine specimens of ripponi in the British Museum 

 Collection and a good series of nycthemerus from China and, as the 

 average of the nine specimens of the former bear out Sharpe's 

 diagnosis as a whole, I retain rifponi for the present, but if more 

 material shows that the affinity to true nycthemerus is closer still, 

 then ripponi must become a synonym of that bird. 



The whole of the British Museum specimens, with one exception 

 from Yunnan, have been obtained from the Southern Shan States, 

 from Keng-tung to Moukmai, but I have seen one other specimen 

 from the Northern Shan States and another from Yunnan which 

 both are referable to this sub-species. 



Althoiigh the range of this bird appears to run into that of sharpei, 

 I have seen no specimens which appear to approach sharpei more 

 closely than rufipes or nycthemerus. This may be due to sharpei 

 keeping to lower levels than ripponi, but it certainly lends some 

 strength to the contention that ripponi is entitled to rank as a sub- 

 species. 



GENNiEUS NYCTHEMERUS BELI. 



Oustalefs Silver Pheasant. 



Gennceus heli, Gustalet, Bull. M. Hist. Nat. Paris, iv, pp. 

 258-261 (1898) ; Ghigi, Mem. Acad. Bologna (6) v, p. 140 (1908). 



