THE JAPANESE PHEASANT. 99 



As the bird has in many cases crossed freely both with the common and the 

 Chinese species, it is desirable to give an accTirate and detailed description of its 

 plumage. Eor this purpose I shall again have recourse to Mr. Gould's "Birds of 

 Asia," and reproduce his elaborate description of the two sexes. 



" The male has the forehead, crown, and occiput purplish oU green ; ear tufts 

 glossy green; chin, throat, and sides and back of the neck glossy changeable bluish 

 green; back of the neck, breast, and under surface deep shining grass green, with 

 shades of purple on the back of the neck g,nd upper part of the breast; feathers 

 of the back and scapularies chesnut, with huffy shafts and two narrow lines of hnS 

 running round each, about equi-distant from q3,ch other and the margin; lower part 

 of the back and upper tail coverts light glaucous grey; shoulders and wing coverts 

 light greenish grey, washed with purple ; primaries brown on the internal web, toothed 

 with dull white at the base ; outer web greyer and irregularly banded with dull white ; 

 tertiaries brown, freckled with grey, and margined first with greenish grey and then 

 with reddish chesnut ; centre of abdomen and thighs blackish brown ; tail glaucous 

 grey, slightly fringed with purplish, and with a series of black marks down the centre, 

 opposite to each other at the base of the feathers, where they assume a band-like 

 form ; as they advance towards the tip they gradually become more and more irregular, 

 until they are arranged alternately, and in the like manner gradually increase in size ; 

 on the lateral feathers these marks are much smaller, and on the outer ones are 

 entirely wanting, those feathers being covered with freckles of brown ; orbits crimson 

 red, interspersed with minute tufts of black feathers ; eyes, yellowish hazel ; bill and 

 feet horn colour. 



"Compared with the female of the common pheasant, the hen of the 

 present bird has all the markings much stronger, and is altogether of a darker 

 colour. She has the whole of the upper surface very dark or blackish brown, each 

 feather broadly edged with buff, passing in some of the feathers to a chesnut hue; 

 those of the head, and particularly those of the back, with a small oval deep spot of 

 deep glossy green close to the tip; primaries and secondaries light brown, irregularly 

 barred with buff, and with huffy shafts; tertiaries dark brown, broadly edged with 

 buff on their inner webs, and mottled with dull pale chesnut on the outer web, the 

 edge of which is buff; tail dark brown, mottled with buff, and black on the edges, 

 and crossed by narrow irregular bands of buff, bordered on either side with blotches 

 of dark brown; on the lateral feathers the lighter edges nearly disappear, and the 

 bands assume a more irregular form; throat buff; all the remainder of the under 

 surface buff, with a large irregular • arrowhead-shaped mark near the top of each 

 feather; thigh similar, but with the dark mark nearly obsolete." 



The habits of the Japanese pheasant in its native country were first 

 described by Mr. Heine, the naturalist attached to the American expedition to 

 Japan, and the following observations by him were published in Commodore Perry's 



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