22 



A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 



These are always present, however, and their eggs are sometimes very abundant, 

 attached to the basal down of the lower throat feathers. From a male bird secured on 

 the eastern boundary of Nepal I took two species of Mallophaga : Goniocotes 

 chrysocephalus Giebel, and Goniodes dissimilis Nitzsch. The known galliformine hosts 

 of these two species are as follows — 



Goniodes dissimilis 



Ithagenes criientus 



Syrniaticus soemerringi scintillans 



Phasianus principalis 



Phasianus torquatus 



Gallus gallus 



Gallus domesticus 



Gallus sonnerati 



Goniocotes chrysocephalus 



Ithagenes cruentus 



Gennaeus albicristatus 



Gennaeus 7tycthemerus 



Gennaeus andersoni 



Lophura diardi 



Lophura ignita 



Phasianus colchicus 



Syrmaticus soemerringi scintillans 



Chrysolophus pictus 



Argusianus argus 



ITHAGENES CRUENTUS 



Up to the present time we know of no specimen of Himalayan Blood Partridge 

 east of extreme western Bhutan, save the single male tibetanus from Tawang, just east of 

 Bhutan, which may prove to be of only subspecific rank. The next nearest forms to 

 the eastward are Ithagenes geoffroyi in south-eastern Tibet and kuseri in the Mishmi 

 Hills. It has been remarked more than once that the eastern or south-eastern 

 specimens of cruenttts differ appreciably from those ranging more to the west, chiefly 

 in the larger amount of crimson streaking on the breast of the western or Nepal birds, 

 this colour being usually absent or only faintly indicated on birds from southern 

 Sikhim. This is well represented in the plates of Gould in his '' Birds of Asia," and 

 Elliot in his " Monograph of the Phasianidae." These differ more from one another 

 than from the distinct species geOjffroyi. Gould's bird is an extreme cruentus ; that 

 of Elliot being more nearly of the affinis type. About seventy per cent, of all 

 Blood Partridges in museum collections are labelled either with no locality or with 

 such uselessly vague terms as '' India," the " Himalayas," or '' Darjeeling." This 

 species has never existed in the vicinity of Darjeeling, nor even in the Darjeeling 

 district, and a number of the latter-named birds were doubtless collected far north 

 on the Nepal slopes of the Singaleela Range, and so are typically highly coloured 

 cruentus. Ignoring all such doubtful specimens, and after extended comparison of 

 the specimens in many museums of India, Europe and America, I have admitted 

 the following two forms — 



