126 A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 



colour becoming more abundant posteriorly and giving the feathers a general darker 

 tone. Flight- feathers brownish-black, the primaries faintly and the secondaries heavily 

 mottled and streaked with chestnut on the outer webs. Longest upper tail-coverts 

 like the secondaries. Tail-feathers chestnut-brown, the two central pairs mottled with 

 black. In many specimens these markings are in the form of narrow, widely separated, 

 but distinct transverse bands. Chin and throat creamy white. Lower neck and breast 

 chestnut, margined wath white on the sides. Lower breast, abdomen, sides, flanks and 

 thighs brownish-black, often mottled with chestnut, with a wide margin of white all 

 around. Lower abdomen with the brown reduced to a central mottling, the remaining 

 portion of the downy feathers white. Under tail-coverts brownish-black, with dull 

 rufous margins. Irides red ; facial skin blue, not as bright as in the male ; bill and 

 cere dark, the edges of lower mandible and tip of the upper paler horn colour ; feet 

 and legs pale flesh, redder on the frontal scales. Weight, 3^ lbs. Spurs sharp, but 

 very small, the longest only 4 mm. Length, 602; extent, 806; bill from nostril, 18; 

 wing, 255; tail, 207; tarsus, 95; middle toe and claw, 55. 



Female Plumage Variations. — The females show considerable variation, the 

 chief being where, on the one hand, the entire dorsal surface is rich chestnut, mottled 

 on the wings, back and rump with black ; or again birds with the back, wings and 

 rump pale buff, heavily vermiculated with black, the mantle being quite evenly dotted 

 with black. These are the extremes, and we find all sorts of intergradations. Then 

 too in a small percentage of specimens the white edging of the ventral plumage is 

 found on the feathers of the upper neck and mantle. These variations are due neither 

 to age nor locality. 



Natal Down. — Short facial down pale buffy white ; forehead pale buff, warming 

 into rufous buff on the crown and rufous on the nape and hind neck. A narrow black 

 line begins at the lower posterior edge of the orbit (with a tiny bit of black on the 

 upper posterior margin), and extends backward and downward across the facial area 

 and ear-coverts, merging with the rich orange rufous of the hind neck. The back is 

 dark chocolate brown, the wing-coverts more chestnut, with a broad buff bar across 

 the centre of the wing. Two well-marked buffy white lines begin on the scapulars 

 and extend backward parallel with the wide chocolate dorsal area, to the rump. Outside 

 of these in turn two chocolate bands, equal to the buff in width, extend backward from 

 under the posterior dorsal edge of the wings, turning at last rather abruptly downward 

 to the flanks. The inferior border of the facial area, the breast, sides and flanks are 

 strongly tinged with bufl", while the remaining ventral surface is creamy white. Iris 

 dark hazel brown. The bill from nostril is 4 mm. ; wing, 25 ; tarsus, 24 ; middle toe 

 and claw, 18. 



Juvenile Plumage, Male. — An interesting stage is shown by a bird with 

 abundant juvenile plumage, but showing active traces of the first-year or post-juvenile 

 moult. This moult, as we shall see in the description of the succeeding bird, seldom 

 results in perfect adult hues and patterns ; and although the bird may breed the coming 

 season, its tail-feathers are seldom pure in colour, and its iridescence is not as strong 

 as it will be after the second annual moult. 



