2:10 Soemmerring's Pheasant. 



especially conspicuous on the lower part of the back and upper 

 tail coverts. This is the general appearance. On examining 

 each feather singly, it is found to be grey at the base, dark 

 rich brown in the middle, with a broad stripe down the centre, 

 and on each side of dark coppery brown, with a lustrous stripe 

 on each side of the tip ; wing coverts the same, but devoid of 

 the lustre at the tips ; a few of the greater coverts with a narrow 

 bar of creamy white at the tip, within which is a still narrower 

 one of black. Primaries dark brown, crossed by irregular 

 broken Jmnds of a tawny hue ; secondaries dark brown, freckled 

 near the tip with tawny, and a large patch of deep rufous 

 near the end of the outer web, becoming much paler at the 

 extremity ; on the tips at the inner webs of several of them 

 the double mark of white and black, as on the greater coverts. 

 Tail rich chestnut red with black shafts, and crossed at intervals 

 of about two inches with a narrow irregular band of black, and 

 a second broader and more decided band of the same colour — 

 the space between the bands being of a similar but paler tint 

 than the body of the feather ; the second band of black, more- 

 over, becomes broader, and gradually blends with the general 

 colours of the feathers as they approach the extremity — on 

 some the intermediate pale band is white ; feathers of the 

 under surface marked like the upper, but the bordering is not 

 luminous, and terminates in dull grey, within which, on the 

 lower part of the sides of the abdomen, is a narrow line of 

 white ; eye orbits red ; bill brown colour ; feet bluish-brown 

 ■colour. 



" The female has a patch of dark brown at the back of 

 the head, with a narrow bordering of rufous at the end of 

 each feather ; feathers of the head and upper surface generally 

 mottled with rufous, with a narrow edging of black at the tip, 

 and with a stripe down the centre, which on the sides of the 

 neck and shoulders is white, and on the other parts deep 

 buff ; rump and upper tail coverts deep rust red, each feather 

 faintly barred with dark brown, some of the wing coverts 

 marked at the tip with black and white, as in the male, but 



