54 GAME BIRDS OF INDIA AND ASIA. 



sexes has the middle feathers much the longest, 

 the others rapidly diminishing to the outer pair ; 

 and the long central feathers are transversely 

 arched, so that they form a roof over the flat 

 feathers below, the whole tail thus looking very 

 narrow and pointed. The cocks have a red bare 

 skin round the eye, and there is sometimes some 

 of this in the hen. They show off in the sideway 

 slanting posture. The pheasants of this group are 

 active birds, strong on the wing and ready to rise ; 

 they will live anywhere where there is moderate 

 cover, but avoid heavy forest. They are charac- 

 teristic of temperate regions as a rule, and are 

 the best game birds of the whole family. 



Mrs. Hume's Pheasant. 



Phasianus humice. Fauna Brit. Ind., Birds, 

 Vol. IV, p. 80. 



Native name : — Loe-nin-koi, Manipur. 



The general colour of the male in this species 

 is a rich bay with a golden gloss ; the head and 

 neck are steel-blue, and the rump steel-blue with 

 white edgings to each feather, giving a beautiful 

 scaled appearance ; there are two white bars across 

 the wing, with a broad patch of steel-blue between 

 them ; the tail is grej^ crossed by bars of mixed 

 black and chestnut. The bill is greenish, eyes 

 orange, and legs brown. 



The hen is mottled with drab, sand}-, and black, 

 and has the outer pairs of tail-feathers chestnut 

 with white tips, and imperfectly barred with black. 



The male is about thirty-three inches long, 

 about twenty inches being taken up by the tail ; 



