YELLOW-NECKED KOKLASS PHEASANT 35 



mottling on the outer web, until the outer secondaries and primaries are plain dark 

 brown except for a clean-cut margin of pale buff. 



The longer three or four pairs of upper tail-coverts and the central pair of rectrices 

 show a new type of pattern. The large centre is clear, pale, greyish white. This is 

 bordered by the two black lines, which are almost obscured, their greater area being 

 taken up by dull chestnut, which pales into light olive at the tip. 



All the remaining tail-feathers show broad white tips, succeeded by a broad area of 

 black. Most of the remaining portion of the feathers is pale grey, crossed half-way by 

 an irregular black bar, the grey above this being also bordered with black. The feathers 

 are opaque, the pale grey appearing below as dull brown, barely distinct from the 

 black. 



In several specimens from Szechuan, the tail-feathers vary strongly in the direction 

 of meyeri, and hence toward macrolopha. 



The under tail-coverts are richly tricoloured, bright chestnut basally, succeeded by 

 a black bar and a large round terminal spot of white. Iris brown ; bill black ; legs 

 and feet blue grey. 



Bill from nostril, 16 mm.; wing, 223; tail, 190; tarsus, 66; middle toe and 

 claw, 56. 



Adult Female. — The new type of plumage pattern characterizing xanthospila is 

 confined to the male, the female being remarkably like the corresponding sex of 

 macrolopha. With the exception of the few characters noted, they are identical. 



The head and neck present no distinct characters. The upper parts show a less 

 development of black, and a corresponding emphasis of pinkish buff, especially on the 

 upper neck and mantle. 



The greatest dorsal mark of distinction is in the greater uniformity of colouring of 

 the back and rump. Instead of carrying out the mantle pattern, there is a rather abrupt 

 change on the back. The black markings and the shaft-stripe vanish, leaving the 

 plumage of an indefinite, finely mottled buffy grey and dark brown. On the rump a 

 curious single line of black feathers extends down the mid line. 



The wings offer no important marks of distinction from macrolopha, but the tail- 

 feathers, all but the central pair, are very different. They are identical with those of 

 the male, being chiefly grey, crossed by an oblique black bar, with a large subterminal 

 zone of black and a wide white fringe. Most individuals have more or less distinct 

 traces of chestnut, chiefly in the form of irregular marginal spots down the outer webs. 



The ventral surface is identical in the two species, except that in xanthospila the 

 extremities of the feathers are distinctly whiter. 



Bill from nostril, 15; wing, 208; tail, 152; tarsus, 58; middle toe and claw, 54. 



Remarks. — The coloured plate in Gould's "Birds of Asia" does not represent a 

 typical xanthospila as regards the yellow collar. In fact, I have seen Common Koklass 

 from Garhwal with as strong a yellow-buff tinge as this plate shows. The divided black 

 line on the plumage, however, marks the bird as distinct from the Himalayan species. 

 Elliot's figure is better as regards the yellow collar and the general bluish cast of the 

 plumage. The crest in both plates is wrongly drawn. 



