64 A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 



ventral plumage. The breast and sides remain quite white, the fringe being disintegrated 

 and silvery white, but the central lower breast and belly change to pale buff, and along 

 the central line rather suddenly to brownish black, the buff being reduced to a pair or 

 two of marginal spots. The lower sides, flanks and under tail-coverts are bright rufous, 

 the black reduced to a spot in the former, and entirely absent in the latter. Thus the 

 rufous of the back and rump are continued clear around the extreme posterior end of the 

 body. 



Mandibles pale yellowish horn colour; iris quite reddish in some individuals, 

 yellowish brown in others ; legs and feet pale lead-colour, fleshy tinge on the posterior 

 positions. Bare facial area scarlet at the breeding season, paler, more pinkish at other 

 times. Weight from 2 lbs. 10 ozs. to almost 4 lbs. Length, 960 mm. ; extent, 760; 

 bill from nostril, 26 ; wing, 259 ; tail, 560 ; tarsus, 73 ; middle toe and claw, 69. The 

 spurs are stout and straight, and measure about 13 mm. in length. Wilson says that 

 the length of an adult cock may reach 1160 mm. in length, but this is most exceptional, 

 and I have never seen one over a maximum length of 1000 mm. 



Adult Female. — Forehead, and a wide border all around bare facial area, whitish, 

 with narrow brown shaft-streaks. Crown and a short occipital crest brownish black, 

 with narrow buff margins. Under eyelid white, bordered with brown featherlets. Chin 

 and throat pure white. Breast, sides and hind neck creamy white, with a large shaft- 

 streak, which basally is split by a whitish shaft-spot. On the mantle the ground-colour 

 has changed to warm chestnut, and so increased that the black is reduced to several 

 spots or successive bars. Very characteristic of the entire upper plumage is the shining 

 white rhachis, which from the hinder mantle posteriorly becomes a shaft-stripe, distally 

 divided into a spot on the back, and merging with the broad, buffy-white tips of the 

 wing-coverts. The shaft-stripe splits the subterminal black marking into two rather 

 symmetrica] ocelli. 



On the hinder mantle the rufous gives place to a mottled grey, the former 

 colour persisting only on the concealed portions of the feathers. The back and rump 

 plumage varies greatly from a dark, mottled brown, with several irregular alternate 

 black and buff cross-bars, to a cold, clouded grey with a conspicuous, black-bordered 

 shaft-streak. 



The secondaries and primaries are dark brown, strongly barred with rufous on the 

 inner, and buffy white on the outer webs, the bars being mottled on the secondaries, but 

 solid on the primaries. 



The central rectrices present a series of cross-bands, so arranged that it is difficult 

 to say what is the ground-colour. A narrow black cross-bar is followed posteriorly by 

 a wide, clear bar of buffy white. Then large black blotches appear, and quickly become 

 a fine mottling, while the buff changes into a greyish rufous. This in turn is abruptly 

 stopped by the next black bar, and so on. 



The colour zones of the ventral surface are very distinct. The white chin and 

 throat give place abruptly to the brownish black of the breast with its wide greyish-white 

 fringe. Although most of the breast plumage is rufous basally, this is quite concealed 

 until, abruptly on the lower breast, the black disappears and the entire remaining 

 ventral plumage shows as rich rufous, with a wide pale buff margin. 



