CHAPTER XY. 



PHEASANTS ADAPTED EOE THE AVIAEY. 



THE GOLDEN PHEASANT {TSAUMALEA PIOTA). 



'MONGST the birds that are reared in our aviaries on account of the 

 beauty of their plumage, the two species of the genus Thaimialea 

 occupy a very prominent position. These birds have been separated 

 from the more typical pheasants (which have been already 

 described as constituting the restricted genus JPhasia/rms) by several 

 well marked characters, the most conspicuous of which are the 

 presence of a crest of silky feathers on the crown of the head, and 

 a tippet of broad flat feathers encircling the upper part of the 

 neck. The Golden Pheasant {Thaumalea picta) has been long known in 

 captivity in Europe ; it was described by linnseus under the name of 

 Fhasianus pictus in 1766, but of its habits in its native country nothing 

 whatever had been ascertained; even its exact locality was doubtful until 

 the recent explorations in China. It is now kno\tn to inhabit the mountains of 

 the western central districts, and it has been shot by Europeans on the banks of 

 the Yangstsze, one hundred miles north of Hankow. In the north of China it is, 

 according to P^re David, quite unknown. 



In its mature plumage the male is one of the most gorgeous of the whole 

 tribe. The head is ornamented with a long crest of silky orange-coloured feathers. 

 This extends backwards over a tippet formed of broad, flat feathers, which are of a 

 deep orange colour, with dark blue bars across the tips ; these latter form, when 

 the feathers are in position, a series of horizontal lines across the tippet. During 

 the courtship of the female this collar or tippet is brought over to the side nearest 

 the hen, as shown in the background of the engraving of this species; but, as the 

 artist, Mr. T. W. Wood, has paid more attention to these amatory displays than 

 any other writer, it is but right to allow him to describe for himself. "Not the 

 least remarkable example of the lateral mode of display during courtship, 



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