WHITE-TAILED WATTLED PHEASANT 157 



it lived only a few weeks. Treacher says that he found difficulty in keeping these 

 pheasants alive, but Hewett's experience was otherwise, as he tells us that they 

 thrive in captivity on paddy, boiled rice and fruit. He goes on to say, however, that 

 he could never keep any of the hens alive, as they refused food and seemed to 

 mope, and would die in a day or two. The hens I had in captivity were, on the 

 contrary, more gentle and ready to feed than the cock-birds, and it was a hen which 

 lived on board ship from Singapore until actually within sight of the harbour of 

 New York. Such isolated and conflicting experiences are of little value in forming 

 any opinion, and doubtless represent merely individual physique or temper on the 

 part of the birds. It is my opinion that when a systematic attempt is made to 

 procure a number of these birds alive, they will be found to be no more delicate 

 than argus pheasants. 



DETAILED DESCRIPTION 



Adult Male. — Feathered parts of head and upper neck dull black, with slight 

 steel-blue terminal margins. Chin and throat thinly feathered, plain black. Neck 

 all around and breast shining crimson, most of the feathers with a narrow steel-blue 

 margin. A typical feather from these areas is divided into three equal parts, the 

 basal third of fluffy grey down ; a middle third of normal black vane, and a distal 

 third of shining crimson. At the beginning of this latter area the barbules become 

 very abruptly shortened, lose all trace of barbicels, and throughout its length are so 

 imperfect and minute, that to the eye the shafts of the barbs appear bare. At the 

 very tip the barbules are slightly longer, forming the exceedingly narrow terminal 

 steel-blue band. 



Posterior to the neck and breast (and also somewhat with advancing age) the 

 crimson disappears apparently rather abruptly, the dead black mid-area pushing up 

 and taking its place, while the steel-blue band widens — this being the general 

 character of all the body plumage, except that the blue terminal band is absent from 

 the primaries, and outer secondaries together with their coverts, the abdomen, thighs 

 and the extremely short under tail-coverts. The steel band is much narrower on the 

 ventral than on the dorsal plumage. 



The primaries are dark brown, not dead black, and in a considerable percentage, 

 more than forty per cent., of wild shot birds, they show as an interesting variation 

 the presence of more or less white. This may be present on as many as nine of 

 the primaries, occurring chiefly on the basal third of the feathers. This colour is 

 usually quite pure on the outer two or three feathers, but becomes mottled and 

 clouded with dark brown as we pass inward. It is rather asymmetrical in occurrence 

 in the total amount on each feather of a corresponding pair in the two wings. 

 None of the adjoining coverts, either upper or lower, show any traces, and indeed 

 the majority, some sixty per cent., of the adult males which I have examined show 

 no trace whatever of this alar-whitening. Nevertheless, its occurrence again and 

 again in birds collected in difl'erent parts of Borneo stamps the character as one, while 

 wholly individual, yet in no sense pathologically albinistic ; very probably correlated 

 in some way with the white colour of the tail-feathers. 



