CHEER PHEASANT 63 



to have been brought to Europe first in the year 1857, ^^d the very following year it 

 laid eggs and reared its young in the London Zoological Gardens. In 1863 it was 

 observed that this bird bred much less freely than the species of Gennaeiis, and failed 

 utterly to give promise of reproducing regularly in confinement, so as to be of use in 

 rearing for shooting in coverts and preserves. In 1876, when a large consignment of 

 pheasants was received from India, this species far outnumbered the others, more than 

 a score being included, and since then it is seldom that the species cannot be obtained 

 from dealers, either wild birds trapped by the hill tribes, and which find their way to the 

 Calcutta and Bombay markets or, more rarely, birds reared in captivity, chiefly in France 

 and Germany. 



Of seventeen individuals of which records have been kept in the London Zoological 

 Gardens, the average duration of life was a little over two years and a half, while one 

 hardy individual had a lease of life in captivity of six years and seven months. 



DETAILED DESCRIPTION 



Adult Male. — Forehead dark brown, widely margined with grey. Crown with 

 less grey, and. a narrow elongated crest springing from the occiput, wholly dark brown 

 with paler grey tips to the feathers. Lower border of bare facial area dark brown, 

 paling slightly on the ear-coverts. Under eyelid covered densely with white feathers, 

 surrounded by a border of black ones. 



Nape slaty blue ; hind neck greyish white, with a dark cross-bar, and a shaft-spot 

 on the concealed portion of the feathers. On the lower neck and mantle the cross-bars 

 increase in number to three or four, the two distal ones visible, and the one nearest 

 the tip acquiring a metallic-green sheen. The terminal fringe is white, but the back- 

 ground changes to a pale bufF. This is the type pattern of the entire body plumage. 

 All the feathers of the lower neck, mantle, scapulars, inner wing-coverts, back and rump 

 show the metallic-green subterminal border. On the wing-coverts, however, the second 

 black bar becomes changed into two L-shaped markings, facing the shaft, while 

 posteriorly the feather becomes mottled with buff, grey and dark brown, the only 

 distinct black lines being longitudinal. 



The inner secondaries have a background of mottled grey and buff, with four or 

 five cross-bars of pale buff, each bordered with black. On the outer secondaries and 

 primaries these bars become solid buff, and very wide and pronounced on the outer 

 web, coalescing along the margin. From the mid-back at the edge of the mantle back 

 to the rump, the feathers are bright golden rufous, with well-developed subterminal 

 band of green, and a few irregular concealed black spots. The fringe of these feathers 

 is quite disintegrated, and of a shining golden rufous. The upper tail-coverts resemble 

 the central rectrices. These latter are quite long and tapering, of a pale buff ground- 

 colour, with about eight wide cross-bars of dark brown, quite densely mottled or 

 vermiculated with grey. On the lateral feathers the background becomes a warmer buff, 

 and the grey mottling is replaced by solid dark chestnut, so extremely developed on the 

 inner web that the black is reduced to a mere anterior and posterior border. 



The chin, throat and chest are greyish white, indistinctly and concealedly barred on 

 the upper breast, the two anterior bars coming into full view, however, on the remaining 



