MALAYAN CRESTLESS FIREBACK . 107 



masculine characters, such as colour in general and extent of bare facial area, the 

 spurs are well developed in this sex. They differ from those of the male, however, in 

 being almost or quite straight, and average 9 mm. in length. The well-developed, 

 carunculated facial area is blood red ; eyes hazel, legs and feet blue-grey. Measurements 

 are, bill from nostril, 16; wing, 221; tail, 142; tarsus, 71; middle toe and claw, 

 46 mm. 



Juvenile Plumage. — The general colouring of this age recalls the corresponding 

 plumage of Lophura, and indeed of the females of that genus ; black and varying shades 

 of chestnut and rufous, the latter colour being confined more or less to the terminal 

 parts of the feathers in the form of mottling or bands. In the succeeding moult this 

 is eliminated from the plumage, except on the back and rump of the male, where it 

 increases in area and assumes the fiery iridescence of those regions. The chin and 

 upper throat are pure white, and the face is thinly feathered, and dull pinkish 

 in hue. 



First Year Male. — The species attains the general adult colouring at the first 

 annual moult, but just as the breeding season varies so widely in various localities, 

 so the condition of the bird at this moult shows unusual variation. In a typical male 

 bird of four or five months of age the spurs are already 7 mm. in length. The papillae 

 on the bare facial area are scarcely apparent, being represented by rectangular scales 

 or flattened nodules. There is a scanty growth of very short, minute, but perfectly 

 formed black feathers over this area. On the body plumage as a whole there is 

 considerably less steel-blue gloss than in the adult, the under-parts being almost wholly 

 plain dull brown. The outer primaries are delayed, and show considerable buff mottling 

 along the margins. The feathers of the back are very impure in colour, much mottled 

 with black, and the fiery hue is almost absent, rather a dark chestnut or maroon. The 

 rump is still darker. Of especial interest is the abundant white freckling on the breast, 

 and the unusually white shafts of the ventral plumage, although even at this age this 

 character is exceedingly variable. The tail moult produces extremes in colour and 

 pattern, from a first-year set of rectrices which are almost wholly black, to the clear, 

 pale buff of the adult. Almost invariably, however, the two central pairs, coming in 

 later than the others, show a closer approximation to the specialized colouring of the 

 adult. The young of this undergrowth-haunting bird seems to suffer the loss of many 

 wing and tail feathers, so that we find them in all stages of half-growth. At this moult 

 the measurements average, bill from nostril, 16; wing, 227; tail, 145; tarsus, 79; 

 middle toe and claw, 50 mm. 



EARLY HISTORY 



Sir Thomas Raffles described a collection of animals and birds from Sumatra made 

 through the East India Company, and read the paper before the Linnaean Society of 

 London, December 5, 1820. This was the first authoritative description of this species. 

 Subsequently many new generic and specific names were founded on misconceptions 

 of the status of male and female birds, and disregard of previous appellations. 



