28 A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 



Tail-feathers black, glossed with purplish green, and with the one or two middle 

 pairs more or less vermiculated with buff. Chin, throat and ear-coverts dull black. 

 Under-parts of greyish white ; lanceolate feathers usually darker than in albocristatus, 

 the basal dark brown being much more in evidence. Abdomen and flanks dull 

 blackish brown, the under tail-coverts glossed with green. 



Facial skin scarlet, rather thickly dotted with minute featherlets. Irides dark 

 hazel. Bill greenish horn colour, dusky at base of culmen and around nostrils. 

 Feet brownish grey; spurs dusky. Weight i lb. 12 ozs. to 2 lbs. 4 ozs. 



Length, 580 to 660 mm. ; expanse, 660 to 750 ; wing, 220 to 235 ; tail, 240 to 

 280; tarsus, 72; middle toe and claw, 60; bill from nostril, 18. 



Adult Female. — Rich warm brown, with the feathers tipped with greyish white 

 on the upper plumage, and more widely with white below. Upper plumage from 

 the mantle backward, including wings, finely vermiculated with black. The rump and 

 upper tail-coverts contrast with the central tail-feathers in being of a lighter, more 

 buffy brown, the vermiculations of the latter being predominately rufous on the 

 outer, and paler buffy white on the inner webs. Otherwise, as in the female of 

 albocristatus. Weight i lb. 6 ozs. to i lb. 12 ozs. 



The colours of the eye and fleshy parts are the same as in albocristatus. 

 Length, 480 to 510 mm.; expanse, 630 to 680; wing, 210; tail, 200; tarsus, 65; middle 

 toe and claw, 56; bill from nostril, 17. 



The female Nepal Kaleege has, on the whole, the vermiculations of the middle 

 tail-feathers less coarse than in albocristatus, while the grey margins of the upper 

 plumage are broader than in melanonotus. In the series of perfectly fresh skins of 

 the three species, leucomelanus is intermediate in general tone of brown colouring, 

 albocristatus being paler and melanonotus darker. Elsewhere I have described how 

 radically the skins of these birds change in time, so that this distinction seems to 

 be lost in museum skins. 



Chick in Down. — The only information we have of a wild caught Kaleege of 

 this age, is the description given by Dr. Scully of a chick captured in Nepal on 

 June 10. The wing-feathers were just sprouting, and measured 50 mm. in 

 length. Head rufous brown, body above dark brown, below buff. Each feather of 

 the new juvenile scapulars and wing-coverts had a buff tip and a sub-terminal black 

 bar. Legs and feet orange; bill greenish-yellow horn. 



Juvenile Plumage. — Young birds of three months resemble the female in 

 general, with the bill pale at the tip, the facial skin pale fleshy red and the legs and 

 feet pale brown. In this plumage the black sub-terminal bars on the upper plumage 

 are the most conspicuous character. 



First Year Plumage. — The adult plumage is assumed at the age of about five 

 months, but traces of the juvenile brown often remain on many of the new feathers 

 of the upper plumage and wings. 



