88 A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 



GENERAL ACCOUNT 



After finding and studying the Himalayan kaleege, I later visited Burma, and there 

 in the south first met with lineatus. My next studies took me to Mandalay, eastward 

 beyond Maymyo, and northward toward the Ruby Mines District and Bhamo. I then 

 spent considerable time in the Myitkyina District far up the Irrawaddy, and among the 

 Shan Mountains to the east and south, to beyond the Yunnan border. Here, thanks to 

 the exact details given me by Major Nisbett, I was able to collect and observe the birds 

 at the very localities where the types were collected. 



From this latter very limited locality six forms of Gennaeus had been recorded. Of 

 these I found no perfectly typical specimens, but pheasants which approximated four, 

 besides a fifth which was not supposed to occur here. In addition I collected birds 

 which, if judged by the characters used in separating the already named forms, would 

 supply at least four additional species. 



The species supposed to inhabit this region are the following : — 



1. affinis. (i c^ from the River Namli ; two thousand feet ; east of Myitkyina.) 



2. granti. (i ^ from Puntum ; six thousand feet ; eight miles east of Sadon.) 



3. nisbetti. (An imperfect ^ from Mt. Kachin ; twenty-five hundred feet ; five miles east 



of Sadon.) 



4. cliff or di. (The district in general.) 



5. batemani. (The district in general.) 



6. horsfieldi. (The district in general.) 



At the locality from which affinis is recorded, the lower River Namli, I found only 

 horsfieldi, which was dominant and almost typical, and a vermiculated bird associated 

 with it which closely resembles the description of obscurus, but differed from it as 

 much as do the most nearly related named species. The two forms were living in close 

 association, the first flock containing three birds, all males, two of which were horsfieldi. 

 In fact this was about the numerical percentage of the latter in this vicinity. On two 

 occasions I saw a distinctly lighter bird in company with horsfieldi, but I failed to secure 

 it. My next stop was at Pungatong, some twenty miles farther east, at an elevation of 

 about four thousand feet. Here I located a flock of eleven kaleege, or what were probably 

 two families of four and five respectively, and two single cock birds. Each afternoon 

 these would unite and take the same route to water, down a gently sloping hillside 

 covered with light forest, across the trail and on down to the stream at the bottom of a 

 rather steep ravine. I watched these birds carefully day after day until I could actually 

 recognize the individuals, in spite of the fact that they were usually well looked after by 

 a mob of laughing thrushes. Then I began shooting, and secured no fewer than eight 

 birds out of the eleven. This comprised all of one family of two parents and two almost 

 full-grown young males in first year plumage, the adult male parent of the second family 

 with a young female of the year, and both of the solitary cock birds — fully adult. The 

 tale of individuals was as follows, using Oates' nomenclature. 



Family Number One : — ■ 



I. Adult Male. — On the whole, this bird resembled horsfieldi, but it had the narrow 

 rump fringe and lengthened tail of batemaiu, the intense blue, non-vermiculated 



