i6o A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 



DETAILED DESCRIPTION 



Adult Male. — Head chestnut brown, the feathers dark at the base. On the 

 occiput a narrow terminal fringe of metallic purple appears, changing to a fiery copper, 

 which increases until most of the visible portion of the neck all around and the mantle 

 are of this colour. On these areas the black has pushed up in the form of two elongated 

 marks on each web, a pattern which characterizes the entire body plumage, the black 

 being visible in the undisturbed plumage of the wing-coverts and much of the ventral parts. 



The entire back and rump are characterized by the purple-copper iridescence being 

 confined to the central part of the terminal fringe, while the lateral areas are paler, buff 

 in some lights, changing to fiery yellow gold. 



The wing-coverts and under parts are non-iridescent ; the former rich chestnut, 

 while the ventral plumage is paler, more of a greyish vinaceous. 



The primaries are brownish black, irregularly barred, especially on the outer w^eb, 

 with pale rufous buff. The secondaries have several bars and a large terminal area on 

 the outer web chestnut, while the concealed basal parts and the inner webs are con- 

 spicuously marked with white. This dies out on the tertiaries in the form of very pale 

 outer margins. These white alar markings show very conspicuously on the under 

 surface of the wing, most of the under wing-coverts and the axillaries being pure white. 



In extreme individuals the central tail-feathers show fourteen to sixteen narrow, 

 black cross-bars, the wide interspaces being rich dark chestnut, paling slightly on the 

 anterior border of the black bars. The outer four pairs of tail-feathers are almost 

 unbarred, but tipped with a wide zone of black. The tail-feathers are eighteen in 

 number and extremely graduated, from the outer pair, which is a bare loo mm., to the 

 central ones, which sometimes reach a length of 925 mm., over nine times the length of 

 the former. 



The mandibles are yellowish horn, darker toward the base. Facial skin scarlet, 

 covered thickly with papillae, quite bare of featherlets except for the lower eyelid, and 

 extending as a small roundish area on the cheek, which is densely covered with white 

 featherlets and bounded with dark chestnut. Iris rich hazel brown. Feet and legs 

 greyish or dark yellowish horn colour. The spurs are quite stout, but not very long, 

 never more than 10 or 12 mm. 



Bill from nostril, 16 mm.; length, 1108; wing, 215 to 230; tail, 660 to 925; 

 tarsus, 64 ; middle toe and claw, 62. 



Variations of Adult Males. — From individuals such as I have described, with 

 no trace of white on the visible portion of the feathers, and with the yellow gold of the 

 back and rump but slightly differentiated from the copper, we find a perfect gradation 

 to the extreme type of scintillans. In Kiusiu, however, to the west and south, the 

 gradation is toward ij'hnae, with the white becoming concentrated on the lower back 

 and rump, and eliminated from all the remaining portion of the plumage. 



Adult Female. — Crown and occiput dull brown, edged with rufous buff. Back 

 and sides of the neck rufous, shading into vinaceous toward the tip of each feather. 

 The mantle is irregularly and sparsely mottled with black, and with two large, lateral, 

 rounded, subterminal spots of the same colour. Posterior mantle, scapulars and wing- 

 coverts more finely mottled, grey rather than rufous or vinaceous, and with conspicuous 



