DARWIN'S KOKLASS PHEASANT 



Pucrasia darwini darwini Swinhoe 



Names. — Specific: darwini, dedicated to Mr. Charles Darwin. English: Darwin's, or Southern Koklass 

 Pheasant. French : Pucrasia darwin. German : Chinesisches Pucrashuhn. Native : Song-by (Pine-fowl 

 Chinese). 



Brief Description.— Male : Differs from the yellow-collared koklass, in that the mantle pattern is 

 quadruple instead of double ; the yellow collar is lacking ; the ventral chestnut is diffuse and faint, and the black 

 cross-bar on the outer tail-feathers is obsolete or reduced to a spot. Female : Like the female of xanthospila, but 

 with tail-feathers as in the male of its own species. 



Range. — East-central China in Southern Anhwei, Chekiang and Fokien. 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION 



Darwin's Koklass has been found in the Province of Chekiang and Fokien, and if 

 the single record from southern Anhwei is correct, its range is rather closely connected 

 with that of Joret's Koklass in the central part of that province. 



GENERAL ACCOUNT 



This Koklass is not uncommon in the mountains of the two provinces within which 

 its centre of distribution seems to lie. Several collectors and naturalists have met with 

 it, but have given us almost nothing concerning its general life history and surroundings, 

 except to say that these are similar to those of other koklass pheasants. It keeps to the 

 mountains and is rather solitary in habit, ranging through the bamboo groves and the 

 open hillsides in search of food. The crop of one bird contained berries and bamboo 

 leaves. 



Hardly worth mentioning is the record of a white ^gg said to be of this species, 

 brought in, in a broken condition, by a Chinese collector. 



DETAILED DESCRIPTION 



Adult Male. — The head and neck are like macrolopha, except that the green gloss 

 covers more of the crown, chin and throat, and the occipital crest is rather olivaceous. 



In xanthospila I have described the general pattern as two tapering, submarginal 

 black lines running the entire length of the feather, the margins being clear grey and 

 the central portion mottled grey. This inner mottling is seen on close examination to be 



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