128 PHEASANTS ADAPTED FOE THE AVIARY. 



The male, witliout possessing the gorgeous coloration of many species of the 

 group, is a very beautiful bird. The face is entirely coyered with a bright vermilion 

 skin, which during the spring becomes excessively briUiant, and is greatly increased 

 in size, so as to almost resemble the comb and wattles of a cock ; the flowing crest 

 is blue-black, the bill light green. The upper part of the body is white, pencilled 

 with the most delicate tracery of black. The whole of the under parts are bluish, 

 black, the legs and feet red, the spurs well developed and usually very sharp. The 

 female is smaller than the male ; her general colour is brown, mottled with a 

 darker tint; the crest and tail are much less ample than those of the cock; the 

 outer tail feathers are Hght, marked with black on the outer webs. The female in 

 confinement usually lays from eight to fourteen eggs, and the young are most 

 easily reared under a common fowl. 



The genus Bwplocam/iis, to which the Silver Pheasant belongs, includes several 

 species. They are distinguished from the true pheasants by the crest, by the more 

 fowl-like form of the tail, and by the males, and sometimes even the females, 

 being strongly and sharply spurred. The common species, the kaleege of India, 

 breed very freely, even in confinement, but are not adapted for turning into the 

 covert, as they rise with diflS.culty, and their flesh is not equal for cuHnary purposes 

 to that of the ordinary pheasant. A correspondent writes : — " I have been shooting 

 lately in preserves where, amongst other game, I had the pleasure of seeing the 

 kaleege on the wing. The birds had been bred under hens from eggs taken from 

 old birds in. a mew, treated in the same manner as pheasants, and were at this 

 time — the last week in December — practically as wild as the pheasants in the same 

 covert. A more unsporting-looking bird on the wing I never met with, or a more 

 unsatisfactory one to knock down. Its flight is low, never rising more than eight 

 or ten feet from the ground, and therefore in a line with everybody's head, conse- 

 quently a most dangerous bird in a battue. Its flight is more like that of a coot 

 or moorhen than any bird I know ; the slow, noiseless flight, and the dark plumage, 

 making it very like the former bird. It runs much before rising — ^is very savage, 

 driving away the other game birds, and is the most unsatisfactory game bird I ever 

 saw. My friend with whom I was shooting is therefore killing them down." 



Twelve different species of kaleege have at various times been shown in the 

 Zoological Gardens, Regent's Park. Of these the greater number have bred either 

 with their own species, or have produced hybrids with other Uuplocami. Amongst 

 those that breed the most freely may be mentioned Swinhoe's pheasant {JE. swmhoii), 

 the purple kaleege (^. horsfeldi), the black-backed kaleege {K melanotis), and the 

 white-crested {E. albo-cristatus). The different species of Euploccmi hybridise 

 together even in a wild state, and there is no difficulty in rearing a very large 

 series of hybrids in captivity. 



