20 A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 



to the other. On the side of the neck is an elongated broad patch of pure white, and 

 the under eyelid is of the same colour. All the rest of the head, chin and throat is 

 black, richly glossed with dark green. 



On the hind neck beneath the crest the glossy green feathers change abruptly into 

 the typical dorsal pattern. This is a cold ashy grey, with a fairly wide black shaft-stripe 

 extending almost to the tip. The feathers of the entire body plumage are quite 

 lanceolate and acutely pointed. The grey of the lower back, rump and sides, takes on 

 a pinkish-white hue, and on the back a fine, narrow white shaft-stripe partly splits the 

 black of the feather. On the rump, which in typical specimens is predominately ashy 

 grey, a single line of peculiar feathers extends down the centre. These have a shaft- 

 stripe of buff or rufous with a broad black line on either side. It is seldom that they 

 appear in perfect alignment. 



The wing-coverts and scapulars are distinct in shade from the mantle, being of 

 a more olive or brownish hue on the exposed portions, with considerable rufous on 

 the inner webs. The scapulars show a great extent of black, the olive being confined 

 to the margins. On the inner margin of the wing a rufous shaft-stripe appears, and 

 on the innermost secondaries only the terminal portion of the feather is ashy, with 

 a large elongated black spot or ocellus on the outer web, all the remaining part of the 

 feather being rufous, irregularly mottled with black. As we proceed outward along 

 the line of secondaries, the black increases and solidifies, until the pattern alters to 

 a regular dark-brown feather, a narrow, pale rufous shaft-stripe, and a very distinct 

 ashy-buff margin to the outer web. The inner four primaries are almost monochrome 

 dark brown, but on the outer six the entire outer web is ashy pink, the outermost 

 showing it rather less distinctly than the others. 



The shorter upper tail-coverts are like the rump, but on the longer ones rufous 

 obliterates the black, and we finally have a rufous feather with an indefinite tinge of 

 grey on the margins and tip and two faint lines of dotted mottlings down the centre 

 of the web, indicating the last of the black pigment. 



There are eight pairs of strongly graduated rectrices, the central pair being almost 

 twice the length of the outer one. This central pair closely resembles the longest upper 

 tail-coverts, except that the rufous is still stronger and the grey correspondingly fainter. 

 The succeeding seven pairs are rich chestnut on the outer web, with the inner web and 

 a large distal area black. Each feather is tipped with a narrow band of pure white. 



The green gloss of the throat shows on its posterior area a narrow fringe of dark 

 chestnut, and on the lower throat this colour increases abruptly. In many adults this 

 hue covers much of the ventral surface. In such individuals it extends dorsally on the 

 neck as a semi-collar as far around as the posterior portion of the white patch. On 

 the side breast, sides and belly it passes at once into the dark-centred, ashy, dorsal 

 pattern, the transition feathers being chestnut on the inner web and black and ashy grey 

 on the outer. On the lower belly the chestnut colour area narrows to a constricted 

 line, which extends as far back as the under tail-coverts, which are dominantly chestnut, 

 with slight lateral black mottlings, and often with more or less white near the tip. On 

 the lower belly the place of the chestnut is taken by the typical black-centred grey 

 feathers. This ventral chestnut area is extremely variable, measuring in width from 

 40 to 90 mm. 



