CHINESE IMPEYAN PHEASANT 151 



and the mottling becomes more dense until, except for the terminal fringe, the feathers 

 closely resemble the anterior upper plumage. The cold grey colour predominates, 

 however, and there is no warm rufous, only pale cold buff. On the longer coverts the 

 barring is rather more rufous, but much of the margins are irregularly mottled. 



The tail feathers closely approximate the central secondaries, but have a greater 

 extent of bright rufous, which alternates with black to form wavy transverse bars, both 

 colours being about equal. The black bars of the central pairs are rather broken at the 

 margin, as are those on the outer webs of the next two or three pairs, the barring 

 becoming more regular and distinct as we pass toward the outer pair. The number of 

 bars of each colour varies from fourteen to eighteen or more. 



The white feathers of the throat become barred with buffy on the lower neck, but 

 almost at once develop a pure white shaft-stripe, which increases in size posteriorly, 

 and contributes the dominant ventral character of the sex. A feather from the mid- 

 breast shows an elongated shaft-stripe, increasing in size distally, the remaining part of 

 the feather being of the usual dark brown hue mottled with indistinct broken bars of 

 pale buff. On the belly and sides the white exceeds the mottled portion in area. On 

 the flanks the white becomes restricted, and toward the tarso-metatarsus joint shows 

 only as a terminal spot. Mandibles dark horn, with pale yellowish horn edges and tips ; 

 irides dark brown. Length, 760; bill from nostril, 38; wing, 317; tail, 266; tarsus, 71; 

 middle toe and claw, 76 mm. 



First Year Plumage, Male. — The several birds in this plumage which I have 

 examined show very great variety in the advance or retardation of colour and pattern, 

 showing that the moult occurred at correspondingly different ages. The general 

 appearance is of a female above and a male below with a few scattered adventitious 

 metallic feathers on the mantle and coverts. The pattern of the tail is much like that of 

 the female, except for a sprinkling of green iridescence on the outer webs, and the black 

 bars being twice as wide as the rufous ones. Many of the latter are decidedly pale and 

 broken on the inner webs — a hint of the adult male plumage. The chin shows some 

 white, and shaft-streaks are abundant on the neck and sides. The wings are decidedly 

 feminine, but the markings on the secondaries are rather mottlings than bars, and pale 

 buff, not rufous. 



A male with more advanced patterns shows much spotting and very little barring 

 on the tail, fewer shaft-stripes on the ventral plumage, and although the lores are still 

 covered with featherlets, these and the facial ones are chocolate instead of white — an 

 intermediate stage on the way to the adult black. The measurements of this individual 

 are all nicely correlated with the slight advance in plumage characters, being a few 

 millimetres greater than in more feminine-coloured individuals. Birds of this age show 

 average measurements of: bill from nostril, 36; wing, 306; tail, 286; tarsus, 71; middle 

 toe and claw, 76 mm. 



EARLY HISTORY 



The first specimens of the Chinese Impeyan were sent from Hankow, China, by the 

 French consul, M. Dabry, in the year 1866. They were said to have been collected in 



