i88 A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 



The primaries are pale chestnut, mottled, especially toward the tips, with black. 

 The secondaries are coarsely mottled with pale buff. The tail-feathers are long, pointed 

 and curved, brownish black and brokenly barred especially on the outer web with buffy 

 white. The markings of the head and neck are almost exactly similar to those of the 

 adult female, while the crest differs chiefly in its smaller size. The lower neck shows 

 considerable metallic-green gloss. The ventral surface is like the adult female, except 

 that there are only slight traces of the pectoral green, and the abdomen is buffy white 

 rather than creamy or rufous. 



First- YEAR Plumage. — The utmost variation is displayed by the plumage of birds 

 in this moult. A very few days of advanced or retarded growth results in an unexpected 

 range of variation. The head, neck and breast are usually well advanced in coloration, 

 occasionally showing as pure metallic sheen as in adult birds. The mantle and back 

 reveal only small and irregular iridescence, and this always in the dark areas between the 

 pale buff bands. The primaries are quite clear rufous, but the secondaries are heavily 

 streaked and barred with buff. The under-parts show the most variation, usually an 

 unpleasing mixture of rufous buff and dark brown, with here and there a tinge of green 

 gloss. The train is absent, although when a few months have passed, if any of the 

 upper tail-coverts be accidentally pulled out, they will be replaced by considerably larger 

 ones, projecting in a ragged, irregular way beyond the tip of the tail. 



In the second and third years the plumage clears up, the buffs giving place to the 

 clear-cut iridescence of the adult. The train gains in length and perfection of pattern 

 and the fourth-year bird appears to the casual observer to be in full plumage. But 

 there is a decided improvement in the ocelli of the succeeding year, and not until the 

 fifth year may the Peacock be said to reach the acme of development. It breeds from 

 the third year on. Although I have watched marked feathers carefully throughout an 

 entire season, I have observed no change of colour without moult. Instead of a gain of 

 the green gloss, there has invariably been a loss of this iridescence, a dulling of the 

 feathers as the wear and tear told on their surface. 



The train, which consists of one hundred to one hundred and fifty feathers, is 

 moulted about mid-July and continues for about three weeks. The wing and tail- 

 feathers are shed and replaced at once, but the ingrowing train sometimes takes four or 

 five months to reach its full growth. 



BLACK-WINGED MUTATION 



Adult Male. — On the mantle and back a golden-bronze iridescence usually 

 predominates instead of green, while in the train coppery bronze is rather dominant 

 over the green of the normally coloured bird. This is, however, not an absolutely 

 constant character, nor is there any persistent difference in the plumage of the head, 

 neck or under-parts, but the wings are quite unlike in the two forms. All trace is 

 lacking of the buff and black-barred scapulars, coverts and inner secondaries. These 

 feathers are black, shot, especially on the visible portions and strongly edged, with 

 glittering green and bronze. The primaries are unaffected, except that they show a 

 greater amount of dark pigmentation on the outer webs. The primary coverts are 

 quite dusky, the rufous being confined to the basal area. 



