246 A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 



statement that the central pair of tail-feathers is shed simultaneously with the hackles. 

 After two or three months, in the course of the autumn, all the cock's ornaments are 

 again assumed by a second moult of these feathers. 



Adult Female. — Feathers on the head brown or dull orange, shading into rusty 

 or rufous on the neck and mantle, and paling into buffy-white on the rear mantle. 

 These feathers have all two broad, longitudinal lines of black extending down the vane. 

 All the remaining upper plumage, together with the wing-coverts and visible portion of 

 the secondaries, is a fine mottling or vermiculation of sandy or rufous brown and black, 

 the back, the lesser and median coverts with a conspicuous, hair-like, white shaft-streak. 

 Primaries plain dull brown. Tail-feathers black, slightly glossed with greenish, the 

 central pair with a marginal mottling of reddish-brown. 



The face is covered with a scanty growth of brown featherlets, the chin and throat 

 with a somewhat denser plumage of white. The pattern of the ventral plumage is of a 

 central area of white and a wide black or dark-brown border. The white increases 

 posteriorly, until on the mid-belly it obliterates the dark marginal colour. There is 

 considerable mottling, however, of the white area, in the form of two irregular longi- 

 tudinal lines in the centre of the vane. The under tail-coverts are dark-brown, with a 

 small, terminal, white shaft-spot. 



The comb is very rudimentary, 3 or 4 mm. in height, slightly notched. The spurs 

 are short, rounded nodules. Upper mandible dark horny-brown ; lower yellowish-white. 

 Irides red to yellow ; facial skin reddish, never as bright as in the cock. Legs and feet 

 brownish yellow, darker on the toes. Length, 380 mm.; culmen from nostril, 19 ; wing, 

 200; tail, 145; tarsus, 63; middle toe and claw, 50 mm. Weight i lb. 9 ozs. to 

 I lb. 12 ozs. 



Chick in Down. — The lores of a week-old chick, and a line backward around the 

 edge of the eyelids, and on over the ear-coverts and around to the nape, dark chocolate 

 brown. A V-shaped mark, with the apex on the mid-crown, and extending backward 

 to the nape, where it meets the two lateral facial lines^ is dark chocolate brown, with a 

 narrow bordering line of black. All the rest of the head, neck and breast yellow buff. 

 Chin and throat creamy white. The chocolate band is continued in an even width down 

 the back to the rump. The side mantle, anterior wings and sides are buffy brown or 

 fawn colour. The new sprouting scapulars and wing-coverts are tipped with greyish- 

 white. From the mid-back to the rump, the central chocolate band is flanked by two 

 creamy white stripes of somewhat lesser width, and outside of these we find still another 

 pair of narrow chocolate lines. The under surface and thighs are creamy white. The 

 wing-feathers are pale sandy peppered with darker brown. 



Culmen from nostril, 5-5 mm. ; wing, 55; tail, 18; tarsus, 20; middle toe and 

 claw, 19 mm. 



Juvenile Plumage. —When the down of the head is shed, it is replaced by a 

 fairly dense growth of brownish-black feathers. The comb at this time is small and 

 rounded, exactly like that of the adult hen. The head and neck hackles of this plumage 

 show no hint of the succeeding specialization, nor do they resemble the corresponding 

 feathers of the female, but they are very much like the post-nuptial eclipse into which 



