32 A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 



A set of seven eggs from southern Szechwan, found in a slight hollow in the 

 ground among bamboo scrub, are pale creamy white in colour, and average 36 x 45 mm. 

 Eggs laid in captivity are usually of a richer cream colour. 



As regards acclimatization, thirty-five years ago it was said that in a certain part of 

 Ireland large numbers of both golden and Amherst Pheasants were breeding together 

 in a wild state. And on an estate in Scotland Amhersts had then been at liberty for 

 years, keeping to one particular section and not allowing other pheasants to interfere or 

 invade their range. Since then little has been accomplished in the way of inducing this 

 species to breed wild, and in only a few places in England are they kept outside of 

 private aviaries. In the United States there has been no attempt to bring about the 

 acclimatization of Amherst Pheasants. 



DETAILED DESCRIPTION 



Adult Male. — Entire top of the head from lores to rear crown dark bronze 

 green, the concealed portion of the feathers black with a large, white oval shaft- 

 spot. On the hind crown a chestnut tinge appears below the green tip, but there 

 is no gradual transition into the elongated feathers of the occiput, which are blood 

 red and form a long crest. These feathers are narrow and stiffened and almost 

 without barbules. 



The cape feathers, springing from the nape and hind neck, are pure white, with 

 a conspicuous terminal margin of black, more or less strongly glossed with steel 

 blue. About half-way down the length of the cape a straight transverse steel-blue 

 b^r appears, becoming strongly developed on the posterior feathers, and almost 

 wholly concealed when the cape is closed. In comparison with a corresponding 

 feather from the cape of a golden pheasant, we find that in the Amherst it is much 

 less specialized, both as to colour, shape and structure. It is comparatively long 

 and narrow, and rounded, not truncate at the tip, and thus when widely spread does 

 not resolve into such perfect alignment of concentric bars as in the golden. The 

 vane is also homogeneous throughout, exhibiting no loss of barbules toward the tip. 

 ^he mantle is much the same as in the golden pheasant, except that the 

 feathers are more rounded and the green is less bronze in character. Lower back 

 and rump black, with a very wide fringe of golden yellow buff, which is separated 

 from the black by a wide subterminal bar of dark green. 



Lesser wing-coverts chiefly dull brown ; medium and greater coverts, and 

 exposed parts of the inner secondaries and tertiaries rich purplish blue. Primaries 

 brownish black, margined or toothed with buffy white on the outer web. Outer 

 secondaries black, unmarked. 



Shorter upper tail-coverts black, the lateral ones fringed with white and the 

 central ones with scarlet. This scarlet sometimes extends a considerable distance 

 up as a mid-line into the anterior zone of golden buff. Long coverts are of great 

 length, white irregularly barred with metallic blue and green and widely tipped with 

 orange red. 



Tail-feathers eighteen in number, the central pair sometimes seven times as 

 long as the outer pair. These central feathers are pure white with about twenty- 



