i8 A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 



are more broken and irregular. The wing-coverts and flight-feathers remain much the 

 same except that the buff banding is narrower, and on the primaries is usually reduced 

 to spots on the outer web. Even on the secondaries the light bands on the inner webs 

 are broken into mottling and are rufous or chestnut in colour. The tail, in the majority 

 of birds, at this moult assumes much the appearance of the adult, the central pair of 

 rectrices showing buff tips and numerous rounded spots on a black ground, whilst these 

 spots fuse together in irregular clouded oblique bands as we proceed outward. In many 

 specimens the juvenile pigmentation is visible on the terminal half or third of the 

 feathers, this area being irregularly banded with pale rufous, buff and black. The moult 

 of the tail, taking place from the outside in, as in all Phasianinae of my classification, 

 the outer feathers are almost wholly of this earlier more generalized patterning, the more 

 advanced condition dominating more and more of the feathers as we proceed inward, 

 until the central rectrices show not a trace of it. On the lower back, rump, upper and 

 under tail-coverts, the colouring is ahead of the body, being usually a rich rufous or 

 dark red, either uniform or with more or less mottling and broad buff tips, according to 

 whether the bird was slightly advanced or retarded in physical condition at the time 

 of moult. The black barring on the yellow buff under parts is very clear-cut and 

 pronounced, the distribution being the same as in the preceding plumage. The spurs 

 are low, flattened, triangular, but sometimes sharp, not more than 4 mm. in height at 

 the time of this completed moult. 



The bill, legs and feet are yellow ochre, and the iris is darker or paler yellow, accord- 

 ing to the less or greater advanced condition of the plumage. Length, about 700 mm. ; 

 bill from nostril, 15; wing, 185; tail, 400; tarsus, 70; middle toe and claw, 60 mm. 



VARIATIONS 



I have observed no variations of importance in wild birds, except in the colour of 

 the scapulars, which vary from scarlet, through crimson, to a very dark hue. Even those 

 bred in captivity are usually indistinguishable from Chinese specimens, but occasionally 

 there occur marked alterations of colour, variations which may be considered of three 

 distinct types. 



First there is sometimes found a congenital difference in colour in the yellow and 

 orange tints of the cock birds. The most common type of this is where the crest and 

 back are somewhat paler yellow than usual, while the mantle, instead of rich orange, 

 is a uniform straw colour. This is doubtless due to some acute disturbance of the 

 normal nourishment of the pigment supply in the embryo or chick. In all the speci- 

 mens which I have observed the variation is permanent, the cock moulting each year 

 into the same straw-coloured mantle. It is essentially a degeneration or atavism, as the 

 yellow straw tint is a less specialized colour than the normal orange. It is interesting 

 to note that the other plumage colours, such as the purple wings and the rich ventral 

 scarlet, seem never to be thus affected. 



A second type of variation is one which is quite commonly found in many other 

 genera of pheasants, but is especially noticeable among Goldens. This is the more or 

 less gradual assumption of male plumage by hen birds. From the point of view of 

 evolution this has always been a phenomenon of intense interest : that the sombre-hued 

 female, who normally would live out her entire span of life, moulting year after year 



