OCTOBER 239 



of this new pheasant. Experts recognised in them 

 features justifying the bird being classed in a distinct 

 genus under the name Oalaphasis Mikado. The colour 

 scheme of the male resembles that of the blackcock — 

 sooty black, lit up by metallic gleams on neck and 

 breast, and relieved by a flaming patch of bare, scarlet 

 skin over the eye. Altogether the cock bird, far from 

 gaudily attired, gives one the impression of a scrupu- 

 lously well-dressed and well-groomed gentleman of 

 elegant figure. Indeed, while contemplating a pen of 

 these birds which Mr. H. J. Elwes has at Colesborne, I 

 could not but think that ' the Shopwalker ' would have 

 been a more appropriate title than ' Mikado.' His mate 

 has to content herself with the protective drab plumage 

 so characteristic of females of the Phasianidce. 



The colour schemes of the male birds of this order 

 are as varied as they are daring and fantastic. Hardly 

 could one devise more startling contrast with the 

 sombre austerity of the aforesaid Mikado than is 

 presented in the lavish splendour of the golden 

 pheasant, which, by the by, is only a pheasant by 

 courtesy, modern ornithologists having placed him in 

 a separate genus under the name of Thaumalea picta 

 — the Painted Wonder-bird.^ But that does not 

 concern us here ; if he is not a true pheasant, he is next 

 door to it, although no amount of compulsory education 

 win train him to be a decent rocketer. It used to 

 be thought that golden pheasants required the pro- 



' Under a recent revision of classifioation the title of the genus 

 comprising the Golden and the Amherst pheasant has been altered to 

 Ohrysolophus, which, meaning 'gold-crested,' is appropriate enough, 

 but less musical than the old name. 



