CHAPTER XYI. 



PHEASANTS ADAPTED FOR THE AVIAEY (CONTINUED). 



THE AMHERST PHEASANT {TSAUMALEA 

 AMHUBSTIJE!). ■ 



ADY AMHERST'S Pheasant was first made known to Europeans by- 

 two male specimens presented hj the King of Ava to Sir Archibald 

 Campbell, and by him given to Lady Amherst, who retained them 

 in India for about two years, and succeeded in bringing both alive 

 to England, where, however, they lived only a few weeks. These 

 specimens were figured and described under the title of JPhasicmus 

 amherstice by Mr. B. Leadbeater in the Linnsean Transactions for 

 1828. Since thiat time until recently no living specimens have 

 been seen in Europe, and in 1863 the male was figured in Mr. 

 P. L. Sclater's list of desiderata required by the Zoological Society. 

 The successful re-introduction of this remarkable species is entirely owing to the 

 combined efforts of Mr. J. J. Stone and Mr. W. Medhurst, Her Majesty's Consul 

 at Shanghai, who obtained twenty specimens in Western Yunan, eight of which 

 reached Shanghai alive, and six — five males and one female — ^were successfully 

 located in the Zoological Gardens, Regent's Park, in July, 1869. Since that time 

 other specimens have been obtained, and there is now no fear of this magnificent 

 bird being lost to this continent, as it has bred freely in confinement. 



The general appearance of the species is strikingly beautiful. The accom- 

 panying engraving, though giving very correctly the general character, necessarily 

 fails in imparting any idea of the coloration of the male. The irides are light, the 

 naked skin of the face is light blue, the feathers of the forehead are green, but 

 the long plumes which form the crest are crimson. The tippet, which is so 

 characteristic a feature in the bird, is white, each feather being margined with a dark 

 green band, and having a second narrow band at some distance from the tip. The 

 front of the neck, the breast, shoulderSj back, and wing-coverts are of an exquisite 

 metallic green, each feather being tipped with velvety black. The lower part of the 



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