NEPAL KOKLASS PHEASANT 



Pucrasia macrolopha nipalensis Gould 



Names. — Specific : nipalensis, from Nepal, the range of the bird. English : Nepal Koklass or Pucras 

 Pheasant. Native : Pokrass (Nepal). 



Brief Description.— Male : Similar to the Common Koklass {P. macrolopha macrolopha), but with the 

 feathers of the back, rump, sides and flanks black, more or less edged with grey. The wing-coverts black, edged 

 with buff or rufous. The sides and hind neck and upper mantle black, strongly marked with chestnut. 

 Female: Similar to the Common Koklass, but showing a decided erythrism throughout the plumage; the 

 whites of macrolopha being buffs, and the buffy areas turning to warm rufous. 



Range.— Western Nepal. 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION 



The Nepal Koklass Pheasant is the eastern offshoot of the Common Koklass. 

 The most extreme individuals of this form are those which have been obtained 

 farthest to the east, although this is only in central Nepal, west of Khachi. It is 

 certain that it does not occur east of the streams which rise near the peak of 

 Dhaulagiri and flow south-eastward into the Gunduck. 



From here westward we find the Koklass Pheasants partaking more and more 

 of the character of true macrolopha. Many specimens collected between Jemlah 

 and the eastern border of Kumaon are indistinguishable from dark-mantled macrolopha 

 from eastern Garhwal. (This region bridges the hiatus of valleys which separates 

 Tragopan melanocephalus from satyr a) 



GENERAL ACCOUNT 



A large series of forty or fifty Nepal Koklass which I have examined form a most 

 remarkable assemblage. Taking the extreme form, we find that the Nepal birds difl"er 

 from the typical macrolopha in that the dorsal plumage, instead of remaining grey, 

 darkens until black is the dominant colour. To see an extreme individual with the 

 lateral ventral plumage black instead of pale ashy grey, the mantle chiefly chestnut 

 and the remainder of the upper parts predominantly black instead of ashy, is to 

 conclude at once that the birds are clearly marked species. But the links connecting 

 the extremes are so gradual that there is absolutely no place to draw a line ; there is 

 no sudden break in either colour or pattern. There is a slight but gradual decrease 

 in general size from macrolopha to extreme nipalensis. 



As to the presence or absence of chestnut on the mantle, it is decidedly not due 

 to age. I have examined young males which have just completed their first autumn 

 moult and found the colour absent in some and very much developed in others. Its 

 greater or less development, however, is correlated with the corresponding geographical 



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