ELLIOT'S BARRED-BACKED PHEASANT 195 



much dark brown and black on the concealed basal portion of the feathers. This white 

 area begins very abruptly in a transverse line on the lower breast, but grades off on the 

 sides by a graduated fringe of white, which as it disappears shows more of the black 

 and rufous basal area. Under tail-coverts black, with more or less chestnut bases ; iris 

 light brown ; mandibles yellowish ; bare facial skin vivid red ; legs and feet bluish grey. 

 Length, 800 mm.; beak to nostril, 17; wing, 235; tail, 430; tarsus, 58; middle toe 

 and claw, 53. Spurs, about 20 mm., slender, curved and sharp. 



Adult Female. — Centre of crown, occiput and nape olive brown with dark rufous 

 margins, the rufous sometimes being the dominant colour. Lores, lower eyelid, fore- 

 head, sides of crown and face pale fawn, becoming greyer on the lower hind neck and 

 pinker on the lower sides of the throat and neck. Mantle black, with two irregular 

 buffy cross-bars, a short, white, arrow-shaped shaft-mark and a broad olive terminal 

 fringe. The black sub-terminal area is often rounded into two ocelli by the surrounding 

 rufous, white and olive. The white wing-bands of the male are all faintly indicated by 

 pale mottled olive feathers. The back and rump are black, mottled with grey, buff and 

 olive in endless variety, sometimes so thickly that the black is reduced to a broad shaft- 

 stripe. The scapulars and coverts are more coarsely mottled, irregular broken buff 

 cross-bars being visible on many feathers, and most of them with a whitish terminal 

 fringe beyond the olive sub-terminal area. 



On the greater coverts are two well-marked, rounded black ocelli, that on the inner 

 web dying out on the secondaries, and the ocellus on the outer web being absent in 

 most of the median coverts. The outer secondaries gradually lose the mottling and 

 become black with oblique rufous cross-bars, which, on the primaries, are pale buff and 

 confined to the outer web. 



The grizzled pattern of the rump is continued on the upper tail-coverts and central 

 rectrices, a black sub-terminal black shaft-mark being conspicuous on the former, while 

 the latter show indistinctly shaded, dark cross-bars alternating with the clouded and 

 mottled grey portions. The tips are pale buff. 



The lateral rectrices are bright chestnut, with marginal traces of the mottled grey 

 bands on the 2nd and 3rd pairs, a black sub-terminal band and a broad white tip. The 

 under tail-coverts are miniatures of these, with considerable basal black. 



In one extreme type the chin, throat, and a rather narrow line down over the 

 central breast are black, in strong contrast with the surrounding pale grey brown or 

 fawn colour. In other birds of equal age the black is partly or wholly absent from 

 chin and throat, or from the chin alone. I have seen but three individuals in which the 

 black was wholly absent. The breast is of a more rufous brown than the neck, and 

 over this the black of the mid-neck spreads out in the form of perfectly round spots, or 

 an imperfect cross-bar. On the concealed portion of the feather we sometimes find a 

 central white shaft-spot and dark mottling. As in the male, the belly is chiefly white, 

 with much scarcely concealed basal brown and black, the feathers of the sides with 

 less white. 



Iris hazel brown ; facial skin showing red under the featherlets ; bill dark yellowish 

 horn; legs and feet slate colour. Length, 500 mm. ; bill from nostril, 18; wing, 210; 

 tail, 195 ; tarsus, 63 ; middle toe and claw, 52. 



