POLYPLECTRON 



PEACOCK PHEASANTS 



Order GALLIFORMES 



Family PHASIANIDAE 



Subfamily ARGUSIANINAE 



Genus POLYPLECTRON 



The Peacock Pheasants are delicate, graceful birds, weighing less than two pounds, 

 with no exaggerated characters of plumage, but ornamented with many beautiful, 

 metallic, eyed spots, which are displayed by the male in courtship. The courtship is 

 frontal. The eggs as a rule are two in number, although in the northern species four 

 and five have been recorded. 



The plumage is grey, brown or buff, usually speckled and vermiculated with 

 lighter, while rarely solid metallic areas are present. The tail-feathers number from 

 twenty to twenty-four, rounded and graduated. The ocelli occur on the rectrices, 

 greater upper tail-coverts, secondaries, wing-coverts, scapulars and mantle. The facial 

 skin when bare is usually reddish. The plumage is lax and soft, and the spurs 

 multiple. 



The females are smaller, duller in tone, and with the ocelli less developed than 

 in their mates. They also lack spurs. Otherwise the sexes resemble each other. 



POL YPLECTRON 



Polyplectron, Temm. Pig. et Gall. II. 1813, p. 363 

 Diplectron, Vieill. Analyse, 18 16, p. 50 

 Poly plectrum, Less. Traite d'Orn. 183 1, p. 487 

 Diplectrum, Agass. Index Universalis, 1846, p. 125 

 Diplectropus, Gloger, Hand- u. Hilfsb., p. 382 

 Emphania, Reichenb. Nat. Syst. Vog. 1852, p. XXIX 



P. chinquis 

 P. chinquis 

 P. chinquis 

 P. chinquis 

 P. chinquis 

 P. napoleonis 



Peacock Pheasants inhabit Burma, Eastern Yunnan, Siam, Cochin China, Hainan, 

 the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Borneo and Palawan. They are birds of the lowland 

 forests and seldom range very far up the mountain slopes. 



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