X LIST OF COLOURED PLATES 



Plate LXI. REEVES'S PHEASANT Syrmaticus reevesi (Gray) . • Facing page 146 



Painted by C. R. Knight. 



Many years before it was seen alive this gorgeous, long-tailed pheasant was known from 

 Chinese paintings, and was thought to be as unreal as the phoenix or dragon. Marco Polo 

 was the first to describe the bird in life. 



It lives in the very heart of China among the gnarled oaks and pines, and nests among 

 the grass and azalea bushes. In spite of the long tail, sometimes six feet long, the Reeves is 

 one of the swiftest and strongest flyers among the pheasants. 



Plate LXII. PLUMAGES OF REEVES'S AND ELLIOT'S PHEASANTS 



Painted by H. Grdnvold. Facing page 154 



Fig. I. Syrmaticus ellioti (Swinhoe), Chick in down, one week old. 

 Fig. 2. Syrmaticus ellioti (Swinhoe), Juvenile plumage, white-throated phase, two and a 



half months old. 

 Fig. 3. Syrmaticus reevesi (Gray), Juvenile plumage, five weeks old. 



Plate LXIII. SOEMMERRING'S COPPER PHEASANT SyrmaticMS soemmerringi 



soemmerringi (Temminck) ...... Facing page 158 



Painted by E. Megargee. 



Like the architecture of the Japanese, the solitary majesty of Fuji, the beauty of the 

 cherry-blossoms, the delicacy of line of the tori— this pheasant seems a thing of unusual beauty. 



As we see it beside a stream, or silhouetted against the misty grey slopes of the snow- 

 covered mountain, it fairly glows as a mass of purplish carmine, changing at every turn to 

 fiery gold. Its vitality is tremendous, and when a half-dozen cocks bouquet with a roar of 

 wings from a plot of dry grass, the other beauties of Nippon are eclipsed. 



Plate LXIV. SCINTILLATING COPPER PHEASANT Syrmaticus soemmerringi 



scintillans (Gould) 

 (Left-hand figure) 



IJIMA'S COPPER PHEASANT Syrmaticus soemmerringi ijimae 



(Dresser) ..... ^ .. . Facing page 162 



(Right-hand figure) 

 Painted by G, E. Lodge. 



As the northern Copper Pheasants are seldom out of sight of the cloud-swept snows of 

 Fuji, so the southern satin-backed birds, by raising their heads, can always watch the billowing 

 blue smoke from the waistcoat-pocket crater of Kirishima-yama. 



Foxes, weasels and especially half-wild house cats are among the enemies which force 

 these birds to roost in trees. In spite of their brilliancy of colouring, Copper Pheasants are 

 able to keep concealed, and a pair or two may inhabit a tiny grove of trees or shrubs on the 

 rocky summit of a hill, and remain quite unknown to the Japanese farmers whose fields 

 surround them on every side. 



Plate LXV. HUME'S BARRED-BACKED PHEASANT Syrmatic74s humiae humiae 



(Hume) ......... Facing page 176 



Painted by G. E. Lodge. 



The first hint of the existence of this pheasant — as in the case of the Mikado — was the 

 presence of its long, purple-grey tail-feathers in the head-dress of honour proudly worn by a 

 native chief. 



The first specimens were obtained by some natives going into enemy territory and setting 

 traps at the risk of their lives. They are not rare, but live in dense forests in the neighbour- 

 hood of streams, and only the isolation of their haunts makes their habits so little known. 



