268 A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 



merely a wrinkled skin, with no hint of the wattle, owing to the non-adhesion of the 

 two walls. 



The crow in this generation usually returns to the three- or four-syllabled call of 

 the domestic rooster. I was given a small, white kekok whose pedigree was : 



Gallus varius ^ Cream Malay Game $ 



Cream Bekisar ^ White Japanese Bantam $ 



White Kekok <^ 



This bird was especially interesting as regards its wattles and its crow. Across 

 the front of its chin and neck was a flap of skin on which were strung five structures, 

 the median wattle, outside of which were two larger gular wattles, while near the outer 

 ends of the flap were the well-developed sub-auricular wattles. The crow was quite 

 like the challenge of the wild Javan bird — an abrupt three-syllabled call, but at the 

 end the beak of the bird remained open, and it strained ludicrously forward in a final 

 silent exhalation, as if giving a long-drawn-out finale to the last syllable. Its audible 

 crow was that of varius ; the duration of posture and effort was clearly that of gallus ! 

 The kekoks cannot be classified, and some individuals which I have seen vary even 

 assymetrically, having parti-coloured adventitious feathers cropping out here and 

 there. 



SYNONYMS BASED ON BEKISARS 



Gallus aeneus Cuvier, is one of the types with violet upper plumage, margined with 

 golden yellow ; comb with minute teeth ; a small median wattle. 



Gallus temminckii Gray, is a red phase of hybrid. All the plumage margined with 

 golden chestnut; six coarse teeth in comb; well-developed median throat wattle, and 

 small gular wattles. 



Gallus violaceus Kelsall, has the violet gloss dominant ; a toothed comb, a good- 

 sized median wattle. 



EARLY HISTORY 



The ddbut of this bird in ornithological literature occurs in the form of a weirdly 

 coloured plate given by Shaw and Nodder in their "Naturalist's Miscellany" of early 

 but unknown date. The general characters are correct, however, and the entire comb 

 and median wattle leave no doubt as to the identification. They call it Phasianus 

 varius or variegated pheasant, and describe it as a ''black pheasant, with red front, 

 glossy-green neck and back, and compressed ascending tail with the coverts hanging 

 down on each side." Aside from a more detailed but no more correct description, we 

 are told that "this beautiful bird seems to be a nondescript, of which the present figure 

 is the first that has been presented to the public. . . . The native country of this species 

 is perhaps not clearly ascertained, but it is probably an Indian bird." 



Teniminck in his Histoire Naturelle Gdnerale des Pigeons et des Gallinacds in 1813 

 gives us the first authentic note. " Cette belle esp^ce est Ms abondante dans les grandes 



