HIMALAYAN IMPEYAN PHEASANT 145 



EARLY HISTORY AND SYNONYMY 



From the point of view of its scientific name, the Impeyan Pheasant has 

 had a most unsettled time of it. I have discussed the causes for this in full 

 elsewhere. 



The first specimen of this species of which we have any record was a bird 

 received by Dr. Johannis Latham and described and figured by him under the 

 name of the Impeyan Pheasant in the Supplement to his General Synopsis 

 published in 1787. Three years later he included it in his Index Ornithologicus 

 as the tenth species of the genus Phasianus with the specific name of impejanus. 

 The donor of the bird, in honour of whom it was named, was Lady Impey, wife 

 of the first Governor of Bengal. In 1823, thirty-six years after his first con- 

 tribution, Dr. Latham again figures the bird, and in volume viii of his General 

 History gives us what is probably a summary of the knowledge of the Impeyan 

 Pheasant at that day. I repeat it in full. ''The above inhabits India, but not 

 common, being brought from the hills in the northern parts of Hindustan to 

 Calcutta, as a rarity. Lady Impey attempted, with great prospect of success, to 

 bring some of them to England, but after living on board for two months they 

 caught a disorder from the other poultry, and died ; the food they had, during 

 the passage, was rice in the husk ; and I was informed, that they are known 

 in India by the name of Monaul, which is foolishly translated Mouth-piece ; 

 that the male is called by some the Golden Fowl. They bear cold, but are 

 impatient of heat. The cock never observed to crow, but had a strong hoarse 

 cackle, not unlike that of a Pheasant. 



''This species is finely expressed in Sir J. Anstruther's drawings, but the bird 

 does not seem to stand so high on its legs as it appears elsewhere ; nor is the 

 bill so very long and hooked ; we may therefore suppose, that the accretion only 

 takes place in those under confinement, where the necessity of providing food, by 

 raking up the ground, does not occur ; and the bill, of course, less worn. I 

 observe that the hind claw is very crooked, and the tail is very little darker at 

 the end than the rest of its length. 



" In the drawings of Lord Mountnorris is one of the male, with a large 

 patch of white in the middle of the back, which I have not seen in any other 

 representation of this singularly beautiful species. 



" In General Hardwicke's drawings, called Moory Zereen." 



For many years afterwards more or less garbled versions of this account 

 were made to do duty by numerous authors in their contributions to ornithology. 



Synonymy — Lophophorus impeyanus (Latham) 



Impeyan Pheasant Latham, General Synopsis, Supplement, I. 1787, p. 208, pi. 114; General History, VIII. 

 1823, p. 210, pi. 125 ; Dalgleish, Avicultural Magazine, N.S., 1908, p. 177 ; St. Quintin, Avicultural Magazine, (3), 

 III. 1912, p. 150 [habits and food in captivity]. 



Phasianus impejanus Latham, Index Ornithologicus, II. 1790, p. 632. 



Phasianus impeyanus Bonnat. Tabl. Encycl. Meth., I. 1791, p. 186, pi. 88, fig. i. 



Phasianus curvirostris Shaw, Mus. Lever., 1792, p. loi, pi. 



Lophophorus refulgens Temminck, Pigeons et Gallinaces, II. 1813, p. 355, III. 1815, p. 673; Stephens, in 

 U 



