266 Zoologica : N. Y. Zoological Society. [I ; 15 



ITHAGINIS KUSERI. 



Some time after I had confirmed my 1910 discovery of this 

 species by the mounted specimens in the Museum of the Jardin 

 des Plantes, Dr. Eagle-Clarke was kind enough to send me a 

 rather young male Ithaginis in full moult and of unusual inter- 

 est. It bore the locality Yunnan on the label and upon careful 

 examination I came to the conclusion that it was Ithaginis ku- 

 seri, but an abnormal individual. In no species of this genus 

 is there normally an increase in pectoral scarlet after the first 

 post- juvenile moult, but in two or three individuals I have found 

 an abnormal abortive condition of pigmentation in young birds 

 and this seems another; the degenerate rusty-buff pigment 

 stains on the pectoral plumage being replaced by crimson in 

 the feathers of the succeeding moult. 



Since discovering Kuser's Blood Partridge in northern Yun- 

 nan, I have been informed by Dr. Annandale of the Indian Mu- 

 seum, Calcutta, that it has been found in the Mishmi Hills by 

 Capt. F. M. Bailey at an elevation of twelve thousand feet, 

 replacing there the Sikhim species. So that it is probable that 

 the species extends in an unbroken range westward from Yun- 

 nan to these mountains. This implies a highland connection 

 between the two regions, and also explains the reason for my 

 unexpected extension of the range of Sclater's Impeyan Pheas- 

 ant (Lophophorus sclateri) from the Mishmi Hills to northwest- 

 ern Yunnan. 



Early Plumages of Ithaginis. 



The Blood Partridges comprise almost the only genus of 

 those which lie close to the limits of my research, which have 

 not been extensively kept or bred in captivity, so that in their 

 case the changes of plumage have neither been observed nor 

 described. The latter fact is indeed true of a considerable num- 

 ber of more widely known species of the pheasants, but I shall 

 postpone the description of these others, and give only the onto- 

 genetic development of the plumage of the Himalayan and the 

 Chinese Blood Partridge. 



