SOEMMERRING'S COPPER PHEASANT i6i 



buffy shaft-streaks. Lower back and rump sandy rufous on the visible part of the 

 feathers, finely vermiculated with black, with a wide, wedge-shaped, black shaft-streak. 



Primaries like those of the male. Secondaries with pale buff instead of chestnut 

 markings. Upper tail-coverts much like the rump. Central tail-feathers rufous 

 centrally, with margin and indistinct cross-bars of grey, all mottled with brown and 

 black. Lateral rectrices solid chestnut, with two oblique bars, a sub-terminal one 

 of black and a wide terminal band of white, the latter extending for some distance down 

 the outer margin. The visible portion of the under tail-coverts pure white. Tail- 

 feathers eighteen in number, very short in comparison with those of the males, the 

 inner only twice as long as the outer pair. 



Chin and throat creamy white, the feathers of the lower face and side throat 

 tipped with black. Breast pale rufous buff, tipped with greyish and irregularly marked 

 and spotted with black. Posteriorly the ground colour becomes chestnut and a wide 

 white terminal area appears. 



Facial area quite thickly covered with short buff and black featherlets, the skin 

 showing reddish beneath. A sub-ocular patch white. Upper mandible chiefly dark 

 horn, paler toward the tip; lower mandible yellowish horn. Iris dark hazel brown. 

 Legs yellowish horn, toes darker. Spur a low but sharp scalule. 



Bill from nostril, 15 mm.; length, 620; wing, 210; tail, 200; tarsus, 62; middle 

 toe and claw, 59. 



Chick in Down. — Centre of crown and nape chestnut, becoming darker on the 

 hind neck, but reverting to uniform chestnut on the wing-coverts and remaining 

 upper parts. A short buffy-white line runs down on each side of the back and rump. 

 Forehead, lores and broad band extending over the eye and down the side of the nape, 

 rich creamy buff. A line of dark chocolate arises on the side neck and extends upward 

 and forward across the ear-coverts and on to the posterior corner of the eye. It 

 appears on the anterior side of the eye as a narrow margin to the eyelid. Face and 

 under parts pale creamy-white, the breast tinged with pale russet. Tips of the newly 

 sprouted flight-feathers reddish brown, indistinctly mottled with black, with dull 

 buff tips. Greater coverts with this terminal band, paler and very conspicuous. 

 A three-day-old chick has hazel irides, yellow-brown beak and legs. Culmen from 

 nostril, 5 mm. ; length, no ; wing, 40; tarsus, 22 ; middle toe and claw, 22. 



SYNONYMY 



Phasianus soemmerringi Temminck, PI. Col, V. 1830, pis. 8, 9 [nos. 487, 488] ; Lesson, Traite d'Orn., 183 1 

 p. 496; Jard., Nat. Lib., Orn., IV. 1834, p. 205, pi. xvii ; Gray, List of Birds, pt. III. Gall. 1844, P- 24; id. Gen. B,' 

 III. 1845, p. 497; Cassin, in Perry's Exp. Jap., II. 1856, p. 225, pi. 2 [S. and middle of Hondo]; Sclater and 

 Wolf, Zool. Sket. 2. 1861, pi. 32; Sclater, List of Phas., 1863, pt. 5, pi. 2 [Simoda, Hondo]; Sclater, Proc. Zool. 

 Soc, 1865, p. 256; Murie, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1865, p. 746; Gray, List Gallinae Brit. Mus., 1867, p. 29; Sclater, 

 Proc. Zool. Soc, 1869, p. 628 ; id. Hand-list Birds, II. 1870, p. 258; Gould, Birds Asia, VII. 1867, pi. 37; Elliot,' 

 Monog. Phas., II. 1872, pi. xii [text]; Blakiston and Pryer, Ibis, 1878, p. 226 [Hondo]; id. Trans' As. Soc. Jap.,' 

 1882, p. 126 [not found in Yezo] ; Seebohm, B. Jap., 1890, p. 370 [Kiu-siu] ; Grant, Cat. Game-birds Brit.* Mus!i 

 XXII. 1893, p. 336; Grant, Hand-book Game-birds, II. 1897, p. 34; Sharpe, Hand-list Birds, I. 1899, p. 38! 

 Nehrkorn, Katalog der Eiersammlung, 1899, p. 194 ; Cronau, Der Zool. Garten, XL. 1899, p. 106 ; Dresser, 'Manual 

 Palaearctic Birds, pt. II. 1903, p. 667; Tegetmeier, Pheasants, 1904, p. 197; Rothschild, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, 

 XIV. 1904, pp. 36, 38, 58 ; Buturlin, Ibis, 1904, pp. 377, 412, 413 ; Hesse, Jour, fur Orn. 1907, p. 216; Rothschild' 

 Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, XXI. 1907, pp. 24, 25 ; Buturlin, Ibis, 1908, p. 584; Ogama, Annotat. Zool. Japon., VI.' 

 1908, p. 356; Mitchell, Proc. Zool. Soc. 191 1, p. 521. 



Syrmaticus soetnmerringii soeinmeringii B^obQ, Zoologica, I. No. 15, 19 14, p. 283. 



VOL. Ill 



