WHITE-CRESTED KALEEGE 23 



and dotted sparingly with minute degenerate featherlets, these being especially abundant 

 on the lower eye-lid. Irides warm hazel brown. Mandibles pale greenish horn colour, 

 darker at the base. Legs and feet rather variable, drab grey to pale whitish, usually 

 more or less tinged with brown or olive. Weight 2 lbs. to 2 lbs. 6 ozs. 



Length, 608 to 735 mm., averaging 670 ; extent, 730 to 800 ; bill from nostril, 

 19 mm. ; wing, 220 to 250 ; tail, 250 to 330 ; tarsus, 75 ; middle toe and claw, 60 ; spurs, 

 straight and rather slender, 15 mm. 



Variation. — The variation in the plumage of the adult male of the White-crested 

 Kaleege is of special interest, because of the geographical position of the species. It is 

 at the extremity of the westward, finger-like extension of the kaleege pheasants along the 

 southern slopes of the Himalayas. Thus, unlike its allies, which are found in inter- 

 mediate positions, the White-crested Kaleege can have affiliations in only one direction 

 and with but a single species, the Nepal kaleege {G. leucomelanus). While variation is 

 present and is quite strongly pronounced yet it points to no indication of incomplete 

 separation or of present crossing between the two species. Again, this variation is as 

 apparent in specimens from the extreme west as from those of the eastern part of the 

 range. There is no gradation as the two species approach one another, such as we find 

 so clearly in the koklass pheasants (Pucrasid) of this same region. 



The variation is in part and very subordinately individual when it is persistent 

 throughout life, but on the whole it is due to age. A few of the most persistent characters 

 hark back through all the present kaleege plumages to a more primitive patterning, such 

 as is to-day found in Burmese and Chinese members of the genus. The whitish 

 vermiculation of the central tail-feathers is worthy of mention here, as it persists in 

 very old individuals, strongly developed, not only on the extreme concealed basal 

 portions, but occasionally well up toward the centre of the feathers, beyond the longest 

 tail-covert. The other variations are detailed in the description of the first-year male 

 plumage. 



Adult Female. — The long occipital crest is brownish grey in colour, and less 

 specialized than in the male. It is shorter, seldom over 70 mm. in length, and the vane, 

 while very narrow, is normally feather-like throughout. Upper body plumage cold 

 reddish brown, the feathers of the crown, neck, mantle, back and rump conspicuously 

 edged with grey. The reddish hue increases in intensity posteriorly, and from the 

 mantle backward is finely vermiculated with black. On the wing-coverts the margins 

 are decidedly white, forming distinct tranverse bars across the wing. The flight-feathers 

 are vermiculated only on the exposed portion of the outer webs, the remainder being 

 brownish-black. 



The middle pair of tail-feathers is black, thickly vermiculated with reddish or rufous, 

 these wavy lines becoming paler and coarser on the inner webs. Traces of this reddish 

 vermiculation are found on the external margin and tips of the next two or three pairs, 

 the lateral rectrices being otherwise black, strongly glossed with green on the outer web. 

 Chin and throat whitish, shading gradually into the warm reddish brown of the lower 

 plumage, the black vermiculation being less distinct than on the upper plumage, but 

 with conspicuous and wide margins of white. 



