I20 A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 



Primary No. 7 may be taken as typical of the real juvenile plumage. It is dark 

 brown, with faint, wholly irregular mottling of dull rufous on the outer web. 



Primary No. 8 (the third from the outer), which, as usual, was somewhat delayed 

 in 'its appearance, has pale buff markings on both webs, in the form of bands oblique 

 to the shaft, about nine altogether, wavy and mottled, but distinct. Nos. 9 and 10 

 very evidently appeared synchronously and are almost identical. The pale buff, mottled 

 bands persist only on the inner part of the inner webs, while in place of the bands 

 elsewhere is now a faint, diffuse cloudiness of pale blue-grey, which has spread until 

 the interspaces have become reduced to roundish, dark brown spots, very regular and 

 sharply delimited on the outer webs. There are six or seven on each web. 



Passing inward to the newly growing feathers, in No. 6 we find a further 

 development of this pattern. The vane in general is very dark brown, entirely, evenly 

 and finely flecked with minute white dots, except for the terminal 38 mm., where are 

 three pairs of markings, half broken oblique bars, half marginal ocelli. 



On the succeeding inner primaries the white peppering or vermiculation is 

 unbroken. 



As usual in this stage of phasianine wing-moult, the. outermost secondary (No. i) 

 is still unshed, although much worn and somewhat broken. It is brown, with pale 

 buff cross-bars. The next seven secondaries are new, having been shed successively 

 inward, the eighth being very short. The succeeding five are unshed, showing the 

 typical juvenile, buff-banded pattern. 



In a second immature male, with the wing-moult somewhat farther advanced, the 

 long-delayed first or outermost secondary has been shed and the new feather is half 

 grown. In colour it is adult, evenly freckled with bluish white, while the succeeding 

 four secondaries all show distinct bands or ocelli on the outer webs. The sixth 

 secondary is typically freckled. So the delayed outer secondary skips the pattern of 

 the next four inner ones, its pattern being of the same adult type infused into the 

 sixth and succeeding ones. 



The moult of the primaries in this individual must have occurred rather earlier 

 than usual, before all the juvenile pigment was eliminated from the blood, for the 

 innermost, or No. i, is quite buffy and banded, and indeed not until the fifth primary 

 is reached do we find unadulterated, pure adult freckling. 



The tail moult of these birds, proceeding regularly from the outside inward, is 

 very readily followed by means of the radical change in colour and pattern ; the juvenile 

 rectrices being rich chestnut, banded with black, especially heavily on the inner webs, 

 while the new feathers are jet black with a slight greenish gloss. 



SUMMARY 



The reason I have treated in such detail this transition from juvenile to adult 

 plumage, is that it seems to indicate the suppression of a specialized plumage pattern 

 which is visible only through the accident of delay in certain wing-feathers. The flight- 

 feathers of the adult, both primaries and secondaries, show no complex pattern. The 

 former arc brown, faintly flecked with grey, the latter evenly vermiculated with white. 

 The very distinct bars and ocelli shown by feathers of intermediate growth [see Coloured 



