SOEMMERRING'S COPPER PHEASANT 



Syrmaticus soemmerringi soemnierringi (Temminck) 



Names. — Specific : soemmerringi, named for M. le professeur de Soemmerring. English : Copper or Soem- 

 merring's Pheasant. French : Faisan de soemmerring. German : Sommerring's Fasan. Native : Akayamadori 

 (Red Mountain Bird, Japanese). 



Brief Description. — Male : General colour above rich chestnut, the margins of these feathers and those 

 of the breast purplish carmine, changing to fiery gold ; ventral plumage vinous chestnut ; the basal part of all the 

 feathers black, visible only on the wing-coverts and under parts ; very long central tail-feathers, with nine to 

 sixteen wide-set, very narrow black cross-bars, the interspaces being rich chestnut. The lateral tail-feathers are 

 tipped with black. Female : Crown dark brown, edged with dull rufous ; ground colour of upper parts black, with 

 a dominant rufous tone on the upper mantle, grey on the lower mantle, and a mottling of grey and buff on the 

 back and rump ; the mantle and scapulars show light shaft-streaks, the back and rump dark ones ; chin and throat 

 buff, the lateral feathers tipped with black ; breast pale buff, shading into grey, with semi-visible basal black 

 markings ; posterior under parts bufify white ; central tail-feathers faintly mottled rufous, with more or less 

 distinct lateral grey bars ; lateral tail-feathers solid chestnut, with a sub-terminal black and a terminal white bar. 



Range. — South-east coast of Honda ; Eastern Kiusiu, Japan. 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION 



This form of the Japanese Copper Pheasant was known many years before the 

 others, and, perhaps wrongly, it has monopolized most of the synonymy and the very 

 vague notes which up to the present time have composed the sum total of our knowledge 

 of these beautiful birds. Nevertheless, it is far from being the most common or widely 

 spread of the Copper Pheasants. 



Densely populated as are the various islands of Japan, yet the exact distribution 

 of bird life is still almost wholly unknown, and even the best native authorities can 

 give one but little help. By means of examining the markets in many towns and 

 villages, and noting or purchasing locally shot pheasants, and from numberless short 

 trips into the country from various points, I was able to outline roughly the general 

 distribution of the different forms of " Yamadori." 



Soemmerring's Pheasant, in the great island of Honda, is apparently confined to 

 the south-east coast, ranging as far north as the Izu peninsula and occurring in an 

 unbroken line as far south as Kobe on the Inland Sea. From here southward 

 soemnierringi and scintillans occur in equal numbers. In Kiusiu, just south of Moji, 

 the former again increases, and throughout the extreme western part of this island one 

 finds pure soemmerringi dominant. 



GENERAL ACCOUNT 



As we have seen, this form is far more local and rarer than scintillans, but its 

 early recognition and comparative abundance in collections is doubtless due to the fact 



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