40 A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 



museum specimens which show the browning of all the black, especially of the 

 primaries and the edges of the contour feathers, and which is due to some factor 

 other than direct light, although this will bring about the same result more quickly. 



Chick in Down. — Chicks three or four days old collected in Sikhim May 20, 

 have the crown, neck and mantle down warm rufous. A black line extends obliquely 

 downward and backward from the posterior edge of the eye to the neck, widening 

 somewhat on the ear-coverts and dying out on the hind neck. The remainder of 

 the upper parts is dark chocolate brown, almost black, with two wide, lateral, pale 

 buff stripes from the scapulars to the tail down. The face is pale buffy white, and 

 the under parts creamy white, tinged with pale rufous on the sides. 



The bill is pale greenish or yellowish horn, darker at the base and along the 

 culmen. I rides dark olive-hazel. Legs and feet reddish flesh colour. 



Bill from nostril, 6 mm. ; length, 90 ; wing, 45 ; tarsus, 72 ; middle toe and claw, 20. 



Juvenile Plumage of Male. — The sexes are distinguishable in this plumage, 

 the male being blacker, while the female has more brown or reddish in the feathers. 

 The male has the upper part of the head, neck and fore-mantle uniform dark smoky 

 brown, almost unmarked. From the mantle posteriorly over the anterior back and 

 wings, appears the regular juvenile pattern of a sub-terminal black bar. This is 

 bordered by faint grey on the mantle and back, and is thus rather inconspicuous, 

 but on the wing-coverts a whitish terminal shaft-spot is developed, and the black is 

 bordered proximally and distally by wide reddish-brown bands, which set it off in 

 sharp contrast. On the greater coverts the terminal white increases. The lower back 

 and rump are rather indistinctly patterned, a dull buffy mottling near the tip of the 

 feathers. The flight feathers are dark brown, strongly vermiculated with reddish 

 brown on the exposed webs. 



The rectrices are narrow and pointed ; black or slighted glossed with greenish ; 

 the central pair, and the next pairs marginally, coarsely vermiculated with buff 

 and greyish. 



The chin and throat are pure white, shading very gradually into the lower 

 plumage. As we leave the white area a blackish mottling obscures more and more 

 of the feather, until only a central noded streak remains. This is the pattern of the 

 side and lower neck. The remainder of the ventral plumage is a confused but 

 coarse mottling of dark brown and buffy white, the margins of the feathers being 

 pure white. On the abdomen the disintegrated plumage is wholly white, the flanks 

 being dark brown. The facial skin is fairly free from the down and is fleshy pink ; 

 the legs and feet fleshy horn colour. 



Bill from nostril, 14 mm.; length, 390; wing, 165; tail, 150; tarsus, 60; middle 

 toe and claw, 50. 



Juvenile Female. — The rufous down of the head is replaced by a buffy brown, 

 faintly barred with black. The hind neck is rather grey, with broad black tips, and 

 on the mantle, reddish brown bands appear, which frame and emphasize the black, 

 here sub-terminal, band. On many of the feathers this band is constricted at the 



