SWINHOE'S KALEEGE 



Gennaeus swinhoii (Gould) 



Names. — Specific : swinhoii^ after Robert Swinhoe, the discoverer of the species. He was for many years the 

 British Consul in Formosa. English : Swinhoe's or Formosan Kaleege. French : Faisan de Swinhoe. German : 

 Formosa-Fasan. Vernacular : Wd-koe (Chinese, adult male) ; Aw-kak or Awbay-kak (immature black-tailed male). 



Brief Description. — Male : Facial skin scarlet ; head, chin and throat black ; crest, mantle and central 

 tail-feathers white ; scapulars dark metallic crimson ; most of the wing-coverts with metallic green fringe ; remainder 

 of plumage glossed with purplish blue. Female : Crest short, black, tipped with reddish-brown ; upper plumage 

 and wings black, thickly mottled with reddish-brown ; mantle, back and wing-coverts with a conspicuous arrow- 

 shaped buffy mark ; flight- feathers black, banded with rufous and whitish-buff; ventral plumage rufous-buff, 

 obliquely barred with black; central tail-feathers irregularly barred and mottled with black and white; other 

 rectrices dark chestnut. 



Range. — The mountain forests of Formosa. 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION 



We have no definite information as to the distribution of Swinhoe's Kaleege, 

 except that it is not found near the coast of Formosa, but only in the wooded 

 mountains of the interior, and from the few certain records appears to occur from 

 five to seven thousand feet, being most abundant in the central, and rare in the 

 northern portions of the island. 



GENERAL ACCOUNT 



My account of the haunts and habits of Swinhoe's Kaleege is second-hand, as 

 I had no opportunity of visiting Formosa and studying the bird in its native home. 

 For many years Mr. Robert Swinhoe was the British Consul in Formosa, and it 

 was due to his efforts that the first specimens of this pheasant were made known to 

 science. In regard to this species, which was described in 1862 by Gould, and 

 named after the discoverer, Mr. Swinhoe from time to time sent the following notes — 



"I was informed by my hunters that a second species of pheasant, which was 



denominated by the Chinese colonists Wd-koe, was found in the interior mountains, 



that it was a true jungle bird, frequenting the wild hill-ranges of the aborigines, and 



rarely descending to the lower hills that border on the Chinese territory, and that in 



the evening and early morning the male was in the habit of showing himself on an 



exposed branch or roof of a savage's hut, uttering his crowing, defiant note, while he 



strutted and threw up his tail like a rooster. I offered rewards and encouraged my 



men to do their utmost to procure me specimens of this bird, and I was so far 



successful that I managed to obtain a pair; but in my trip to the interior it was in 



vain that I sought to get a view of it in its native haunts, and to make acquaintance 



with it in a state of nature. 



''The female was brought to me on the isfof April, soon after it was shot, 



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