44 GAME BIRDS OF INDIA. 



the type of the Phoenix of the ancients. The other species is a 

 most lovely bird, Thaumalea Amherstice, Leadbeater, probably an 

 inhabitant of the northern provinces of China, or Mantchouria. 

 It is beautifully figured in Gray's Genera of Birds. 



The Silver Pheasant, Germans nycthemerus, figured by Gould, 

 Birds of Asia, pt. XL, pi. 1, is the type of another form ; and 

 this is intimately connected with a group which leads from the 

 Pheasants to the Firebacks and Jungle-fowl, and may be placed 

 with either. It is that of the Kalij Pheasants of the Himalayas, 

 and, as it partakes both of the character of the Pheasants and 

 Jungle-fowl, so, in its geographical distribution, it ranges from 

 the head quarters of the Pheasants to the Burmese province, 

 where Jungle-fowl take the place of the true Pheasants. 



The Silver Pheasant of Burmah, Phasianns lineatus, Latham, 

 figured in Belanger's Voyage, Birds, pi. 8, might be classed either 

 with the true Silver Pheasant, or the Kalij group, but from geogra- 

 phic reasons I prefer placing it with the latter. It has been 

 separated as Grammatoptilus, Keichenbach. It occurs throughout 

 the hilly regions of Burmah. 



Gen. Gallophasis, Hodgson. 



Syn. EuplocomiiS) Temminck (in part). 



Char. — Head more or less crested ; orbits naked, red ; plumage 

 glossy black and white ; the feathers of the neck and breast 

 hackled ; tail moderately long, of sixteen feathers, divaricated, 

 raised in the centre, as in Jungle-fowl, and held demi-crect, the 

 feathers drooping and curving outwards. 



This group is composed of at least three species, two being 

 found in the Himalayas, and one in Assam, Chittagong and 

 Arrakan. They are birds about the size of a small fowl, and live 

 at various elevations, from 3,000 feet to 7,000 feet and upwards. 

 Gray places them among the Jungle-fowl, but from their Himalayan 

 distribution, and their not extending far South, I prefer placing 

 them with the Pheasants, but leading directly to the Firebacks and 

 Jungle-fowl. 



