THE YELLOW-NECKED KOKLASS PHEASANT AND ITS ALLIES 



As we have seen, the Koklass Pheasants of the extreme western Himalayas and of 

 central Nepal develop chestnut mantles. Those of Tibet and of northern China acquire 

 a less extensive but more conspicuous and very distinct yellow dorsal collar. This is 

 foreshadowed in about 20 per cent, of macrolopha macrolopha, the Common Koklass of 

 Garhwal, in which a strong buffy tinge is present on the side and hind neck. 



The character which seems most constant, and therefore logical for use in separating 

 the northern forms, is the pattern of the mantle and other parts of the plumage. The 

 central black stripe of macrolopha and its allies is in xanthospila split into two by a 

 wide shaft-stripe. 



The rufous on the lateral rectrices so marked in macrolopha disappears in typical 

 xanthospila, save in about 10 per cent, of the individuals ; but this character is retained 

 in xanthospila meyeri. The orange tinge of the collar is characteristic of Kansu 

 specimens which seem to form a fairly well-marked subspecies ruficollis. 



The form joretiana occurs to the south of typical xanthospila, and in some ways, 

 noticeably the loss of the yellow collar, approaches darwini. The perfect xanthospila 

 "double" pattern on the plumage, however, together with the great variation in the 

 amount of nuchal yellow in the northern birds (I have seen one from Pekin with no 

 more buffy tinge than is found in many macrolopha from Garhwal), make it desirable 

 to covi^x^^x joretiana as a subspecies oi xanthospila. 



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