122 PHEASANTS ADAPTED FOR THE AVIARY. 
breast and the belly are white, the thighs and under tail coverts mottled dark 
brown and white. The feathers of the rump have the exposed parts bright saffron 
yellow. Ihe tail coverts are brown at the base, striped green and white in the 
middle, and brilliant scarlet at the ends. The two upper middle tail feathers have 
a light ground marked so as to resemble lace, with broad transverse bands of green 
about an inch apart. The other tail feathers have the inner webs mottled black 
and white, the outer webs with curved green bars, about three-quarters of an inch 
apart. The bill is pale greenish, and the feet and legs bluish lead colour. The 
female closely resembles the hen of the last species (Z. picta), being a rich chestnut 
brown, with bars of dark brown, which are broader than those of the Golden 
Pheasant hen, and the under parts are lighter in colour; moreover, the bare skin 
of the face is pale blue like that of the male, but much smaller. The size of this 
species is somewhat larger than that of its close ally, the Golden Pheasant. In 
the male the adult plumage is not assumed until the autumn of the second year. 
When Mr. Gould gave his description of this pheasant in his “ Birds of 
‘Asia,” the male only was known, and he wrote:—“ It would give me great pleasure 
to see a female of this fine bird, and every ornithologist would be truly gratified 
by the arrival of any information respecting the part of the Celestial Empire in 
which it dwells, and any details as to its habits. The bird would doubtless be as 
easily kept in our aviaries as its near ally, the Golden Pheasant ; and it is my 
ardent wish to see it thus located before I leave this lower world for the higher 
and brighter one which is the end of our hopes and desires.” 
Every ornithologist must feel glad that Mr. Gould had his wish gratified. 
Since the arrival of Mr. Stone’s specimens, Mr. Anderson, the curator of the 
Indian Museum at Calcutta, has received skins of both sexes from Yunan and 
Upper Burmah, where it is not rare, the plumes being worn by the natives. 
The only account of the habits of this beautiful species in a wild state. 
occurs in a letter from Monsieur Carreau,-a French missionary in Thibet, to 
the Paris Acclimatization Society. He states:—“The Pheasant Houa-ze-Ky, the 
Flower pheasant of the Chinese, always inhabits very rocky places. Whenever I 
have seen this bird flying upwards, I have always been able to shoot it; but if it 
was descending, I could not procure it, for then it disappeared with excessive 
rapidity. After having pursued it several times, I have found it more convenient 
to obtain it in the same manner as the natives, who lay in wait for it during the 
winter and catch it in snares. When the mountains are covered with snow, and the 
streams frozen, the Flower Pheasants are obliged: to descend to the plains for water ; 
but as soon as they are satisfied, they ascend again. In the paths these birds follow 
each other in a line; and as they go in flocks, and the snares are few in number, 
the Chinese do not make much from the plumage and flesh of this beautiful 
pheasant. Ta-lin-pin is situated in the 29th degree of latitude N., and the 102nd 
