PLATE LXIII 



SOEMMERRING'S COPPER PHEASANT 



Syrmaticus soemmerringi soemmerringi (Temminck) 



Like the architecture of the Japanese, the solitary majesty of Fuji, the beauty of the cherry-blossoms, 

 the delicacy of line of the tori — this pheasant seems a thing of unusual beauty. 



As we see it beside a stream, or silhouetted against the misty grey slopes of the snow-covered mountain, 

 it fairly glows as a mass of purplish carmine, changing at every turn to fiery gold. Its vitality is tremendous, 

 and when a half-dozen cocks bouquet with a roar of wings from a plot of dry grass, the other beauties of 

 Nippon are eclipsed. 



