122 PHEASANTS ADAPTED FOE THE AVIARY. 



breast and tlie belly are white, tbe tbigbs and under tail coverts mottled dark 

 brown and wbite. Tbe feathers of the rump have the exposed parts bright saffron 

 yellow. Ihe tail coverts are brown at the base, striped green and white in the 

 middle, and brilliant scarlet at the ends. The two upper middle tail feathers have 

 a light ground marked so as to resemble lace, with broad transverse bands of green 

 about an inch apart. The other tail feathers have the inner webs mottled black 

 and white, the outer webs with curved green bars, about three-quarters of an inch 

 apart. The bill is pale greenish, and the feet and legs bluish lead colour. The 

 female closely resembles the hen of the last species {T. picta), being a rich chestnut 

 brown, with bars of dark brown, which are broader than those of the G-olden 

 Pheasant hen, and the under parts are lighter in colour; moreover, the bare skin 

 of the face is pale blue like that of the male, but much smaller. The size of this 

 species is somewhat larger than that of its close ally, the Golden Pheasant. In 

 "the male the adult plumage is not assumed until the autumn of the second year. 



When Mr. Gould gave his description of this pheasant in his " Birds of 

 Asia," the male only was known, and he wrote: — "It would give me great pleasure 

 to see a female of this fine bird, and every ornithologist would be truly gratified 

 by the arrival of any information respecting the part of the Celestial Empire in 

 which it dwells, and any details as to its habits. The bird would doubtless be as 

 easily kept in our aviaries as its near ally, the Golden Pheasant; and it is my 

 ardent wish to see it thus located before I leave this lower world for the higher 

 and brighter one which is the end of our hopes and desires." 



Every ornithologist must feel glad that Mr. Gould had his wish gratified. 

 Since the arrival of Mr. Stone's specimens, Mr, Anderson, the curator of the 

 Indian Museum at Calcutta, has received skins of both sexes from Tunan and 

 Upper Burmah, whore it is not rare, the plumes being worn by the natives. 



The only account of the habits of this beautiful species in a wild state 

 occurs in a letter from Monsieur Carre3,u, a !French missionary in Thibet, to 

 the Paris Acclimatization Society, He states: — "The Pheasant Sovia-ze-Ky, the 

 Elower pheasant of the Chinese, always, inhabits very rocky places. "Whenever I 

 have seen this bird flying upwards, I have always been able to shoot it; but if it 

 was descending, I could not procure it, for then it disappeared with excessive 

 rapidity. After having pursued it several times, I have found it more convenient 

 to obtain it in the same manner as the natives, who lay in wait for it during the 

 winter and catch it in snares. When the mountains are covered with snow, and the 

 streams frozen, the Elower Pheasants are obliged to descend to the plains for water ; 

 but as soon as they are satisfied, they ascend again. In the paths these birds foUow 

 each other in a line; and as they go in flocks, and the snares are few in number 

 the Chinese do not make much from the plumage and flesh of this beautiful 

 pheasant. Ta-Hn-pin is situated in the 29th degree of latitude N., and the 102nd 



