GOLDEN PHEASANT 15 



exhibited in zoological gardens. Of seventy-five birds which have lived in the London 

 Zoological Gardens, the average length of life is nearly two years, while the maximum 

 is seven years and nine months. 



DETAILED DESCRIPTION 



Adult Male. — Entire top of the head, extending backward as a long, silky, 

 filamentous crest ; shining golden yellow. The longest feathers may measure as much 

 as 100 mm. and are often slightly tipped with orange. The extreme basal part of these 

 crest feathers is fairly normal, although but scantily barbuled. The visible portion 

 changes abruptly from dull whitish to metallic yellow, the barbs become stiffened and 

 wholly destitute of barbules. The shaft extends as a well-developed rhachis to the very 

 tip, an unusual condition in such a specialized type of feather. 



The yellow occiput feathers give place abruptly to the cape which forms one of 

 the most specialized secondary sexual characters to be found among pheasants. The 

 concealed portion of these feathers is whitish at the base, shading into pale buffy orange, 

 the webs being normal. Across the distal end of this zone extends a black band, slightly 

 tinged with metallic blue. The feather is tipped with a second similar bluish-black 

 band, and between these two the barbs are bare and of a clear orange colour. The 

 terminal band being composed chiefly of dark barbules, these appear as a distal tuft on 

 the ends of the bare barbs. The metallic steel blue is very strongly developed in this 

 bar. All the barbs of the feather are lengthened, so that those of all the vane except at 

 the very base reach the truncate tip and enter into the formation of the two black bars 

 and the zone of bare orange barbs. The rhachis, strongly developed up to the first black 

 bar, at this point divides into several barbs indistinguishable in the orange zone from 

 the others. 



I have elsewhere described the function which this gorgeous cape assumes in 

 courtship, and how the second line of black, wholly invisible in the closed cape, is of 

 great importance in the widely spread feathers in closing up all gaps in the terminal bar. 



The feathers of the lower neck and mantle are metallic sage green, shading basally 

 into a narrow zone of purplish blue, the remainder of the feather being grey. All the 

 feathers in this area, but especially the more anterior ones, show a sub-terminal zone, 

 scantily barbed and black, wholly lacking the iridescent green colour. This is evidently 

 a degenerate relic of the zone of bare barbs which forms the most specialized character 

 of the nuchal cape. On the more posterior mantle feathers this black area becomes 

 almost terminal, and gives the effect of the green feathers having each a terminal band 

 of black. One finds in this area beautiful fault-bars of successive green and purple, 

 especially in captive birds. 



The green mantle gives place at once to the zone of golden yellow on the back, 

 rump and shorter upper tail-coverts. These feathers are grey and disintegrated except 

 for a narrow zone of chestnut mottled with black which passes at once into the nearly 

 barbuleless, elongated, terminal golden barbs. The scapulars are dull crimson, mottled 

 with black and with the tips shading into dull scarlet. The side feathers of the back 

 and rump shade from yellow into crimson scarlet, thus merging into the under parts, 

 which are mostly of this colour. The belly, thighs and the concealed parts of all the 



