THE COMMON KOKLASS PHEASANT AND ITS ALLIES 



The Koklass Pheasants of the Himalayas present a rather unique state of affairs. 

 There is apparently little or no break in their distribution from Afghanistan or Kafiristan 

 in the far north-west to central Nepal in the east. The Koklass inhabiting this area 

 have been segregated under some four names. These have been taken to indicate distinct 

 species, since, so far as I know, none has ever received a trinomial name, or subspecific 

 denomination. After an exhaustive study of the living and freshly shot birds in their 

 native haunts in the north-western Himalayas, and of the collections of Koklass 

 Pheasants in many museums, both in America, Europe and Asia, it seems to me more 

 logical to designate these forms as follows, giving them in order from west to east : 



Pucrasia macrolopha castanea ......... Kafiristan. 



Pucrasia macrolopha biddulphi ......... Kashmir. 



Pucrasia macrolopha macrolopha Chamba to Kumaon. 



Pucrasia macrolopha nipalensis Western Nepal. 



My reasons, outlined in brief, are as follows. There seems little doubt but that 

 macrolopha forms the centre of radius of all the adjacent forms of Himalayan and other 

 Pucrasia. In a large series of skins from Kumaon and Garhwal are found very con- 

 siderable variations from the more normal type, which are tri-radiate, pointing in these 

 three directions : 



Chestnut darkening ventrally and encroaching on mantle ; pale back. Westward, 



toward biddulphi and castanea. 

 Chestnut darkening ventrally and encroaching on mantle ; dark back. Eastward 



toward nipalensis. 

 Yellowing of the mantle. Northward toward xanthospila. 



The typical macrolopha from Kumaon and Garhwal are undoubtedly the most 

 generalized of the entire genus. Going westward and eastward from this region we find 

 the birds becoming more and more specialized in colour, but not in pattern, until in 

 Kafiristan in the one direction and central Nepal in the other the two extremes are 

 reached. 



In many specimens even from central Garhwal — the centre of distribution of typical 

 macrolopha — we find distinct shaft-streaks of chestnut not only on the hind neck, but 

 even low down on the mantle, and as we go westward the birds merge into biddulphi. 

 In many pheasants from Koteguhr the ventral chestnut is very widespread and fully as 

 dark as in castanea. The more extreme castanea forms vary much among themselves 

 in this character, two which I have seen being exactly intermediate between castanea 

 and biddulphi. Gould's statement that castanea is " altogether a stouter and larger bird 

 than Pucrasia macrolopha !' is wholly without foundation, and was probably based on 



6 



