CHAPTEE XVIII. 



Pheasants Adapted to the Aviary. 



The Golden Pheasant 



{Thaiimalea j>icta). 



AMONGST the birds that are reared in our aviaries on 

 account of the beauty of their plumage, the two species 

 of the genus TJiaumalea occupy a very prominent 

 position. These birds have been separated from the more 

 typical pheasants (which have been already described as con- 

 stituting the restricted genus Phasianus) by several well- 

 marked characters, the most conspicuous of which are the 

 presence of a crest of silky feathers on the crown of the head, 

 and a tippet of broad flat feathers eucirchng the upper part 

 of the neck. The Golden Pheasant {Thaumalea picta) has 

 been long known in captivity in Europe ; it was described 

 by Linneeus under the name of Phasianus pictus in 1766, 

 but of its habits in its native country nothing whatever had 

 been ascertained ; even its exact locahty was doubtful until 

 tnore recent explorations in China. It is now known to inhabit 

 the mountains of the western central districts, and it has 

 been shot by Europeans on the banks of the Yang-tsze, one 

 liundred miles north of Hankow. In the north of China it is, 

 according to Pere David, quite unknown. 



In its mature plumage the male is one of the most gorgeous 

 of the whole tribe. The head is ornamented with a long 

 crest of silky orange-coloured feathers. This extends back- 

 wards over a tippet formed of broad flat feathers, which are 

 of a deep orange colour, with dark blue bars across the tips ; 

 these latter form, when the feathers are in position, a series 

 of horizontal lines across the tippet. During the courtship 



