GALLINACEOUS BIRDS. 247 



Latham saw at Sir Joseph Banks's some drawings taken from a curious collection of ancient 

 porcelain, representing a sham-fight on the water for the Emperor's amusement, supposed to be between 

 his Tartarian and Chinese subjects, personated by the females of his seraglio, the chieftains of the 

 former having one of the barred feathers of this species on each side of the bonnet, and the opponents, 

 or Chinese, having two feathers of a Pheasant of a smaller kind, probably a Golden one ; hence he 

 concludes that the present bird is a native df Tartary, and not unlikely to be as common there as the 

 other is in China. 



Dr. Bennett, in his " Wanderings in New South Wales," writes as follows : — " In Mr. Beale's 

 splendid aviary and gardens at Macao, the beautiful Phasiamcs veneratus of Temminck, or P. Reojesii 

 of Gray, now commonly known by the name of Reeves' Pheasant, was seen. It is the Che Kai of the 

 Chinese. The longest tail-teathers of this b.rd are six feet in length, and are placed in the caps of the 

 players when acting military characters. This I observed in Canton, where some of the beautiful tail- 

 feathers (rather in a dirty condition, like the actors themselves, who in their tawdry dresses reminded 

 me of the sweeps in London on a May-day) were placed erect on each side of their caps as a decora- 

 tion. The Chinese do not venerate this bird, as was at first supposed, and which may have caused 

 Temminck to bestow upon it the name of Veneratus, but it is superstitiously believed that the blood is 

 possessed of poisonous properties, and that the mandarins, when in expectation of losing their rank and 

 being suddenly put to death by order of the Emperor, preserve some of it upon a handkerchief in a 

 dried state, on sucking which they fall down and instantly expire." 



Mr. Beale's first male specimen, obtained in iSoi, was kept in a healthy state for thirteen years. 

 After its death he endeavoured to procure others, but did not succeed until 1831, when four specimens 

 were brought from the interior and purchased by him for 130 dollars. These were, I believe, subse- 

 quently taken to England by Mr. Reeves. 



The GOLDEN PHEASANTS {Thaumalea) are distinguishable from the birds above described 

 by the comparatively small size of their bodies, their slender forms, bushy crest, and very long tail. 

 The neck of the male is adorned with a renlarkable collar of feathers that covers the nape, and is 

 broadest under the chin. 



THE GOLDEN PHEASANT. 



The Golden Pheasant (Thaumalea pida) is most gorgeously apparelled, with a bright golden 

 crest upon its head, and a rich orange-red collar, in which each feather is edged with deep velvety 

 black ; the feathers of the mantle are golderi green, bordered with black, those on the lower back 

 and upper tail-covers bright yellow, and those on the face, chin, and sides df throat whitish yellow. 

 The lower neck and under side are a deep saffron-yellow, the wing-covers chestnut-brown, the quills 

 greyish brown, edged with rust-red, the shoulder-feathers dark blue, with light borders, and most 

 of those of the tail decorated with a black network tracery ; the long, centre feathers of the upper 

 covers are dark red, the eye is golden yellow, the beak whitish yellow, and the foot brownish. The 

 male is thirty-two inches long and twenty-five broad, the wing measures eight and the tail twenty-two 

 inches. The plumage of the hen is deep rust-red above, shading on the under side into a mixture of 

 red, grey, and yellow ; the feathers on the top of the head, throat, and sides, upper secondaries, and 

 centre tail-feathers are striped brownish yellow and black, arid the side tail-feathers brown, marked 

 with yellowish grey. A very similar species lately discovered, and called Thauiilalea obscura, is distinguish- 

 able from the above species, which in other respects it closely resembles, by the comparative darkness 

 of its plumage during all its various changes, and by the inferior length of the tail-feathers. 



The Golden Pheasant inhabits Southern Tauria and the eastern part of the desert of Mongolia, 

 advancing in summer up to the Amoor, and also the provinces of Kansu and Setschun in the interior 



