HIMALAYAN BLOOD PARTRIDGE 17 



Spurs, irregular in number, from one to five on each leg. By far the larger 

 number (60 per cent.) of the cocks have two spurs on each leg ; about 30 per cent, 

 have a larger number than this, while only 10 per cent, have fewer than four spurs. 



Colour Generalization. — The most primitive mode of occurrence of crimson in 

 the male birds is as subterminal, round spots, one in the centre of each vane. This 

 type occurs in the feathering of the throat, the lesser under tail-coverts, breast spots 

 and even in adventitious pigmentation on the forehead and elsewhere. 



In the fully adult males the feathers nearest the centre of the breast bear a crimson 

 spot or blotch on each web, which persists even on some of the sub-alar plumage of 

 the sides. In many cases the distal edges of the spot of bright colour is a straight, 

 sharp, transverse line, corresponding to the fault-bars which are distinct even in the 

 monochrome green, showing that the deposition of crimson pigment began very suddenly. 

 Basally (as in so many of the pheasants) Nature has been economical with her pigments, 

 and on the concealed portion of the feather the crimson fades abruptly into a rusty 

 orange stain, which tinges much of the basal vane — an atavistic reminder of the more 

 primitive tints of the female. The concentrated outpouring of pigment in the breast 

 ornaments of the male is exhausted in the formation of these visible spots, and becomes 

 diluted and lost where the eye of the world — or shall we say of his mate — can no longer 

 perceive it. 



In well-marked birds we perceive a decided tendency for the pectoral crimson 

 to form longitudinal streaks, antero-posteriorly. A strongly marked feather on the 

 mid-breast with a spot on the right vane will invariably be followed by a succession 

 of similarly marked feathers down the breast. Even local individual variations in the 

 character of the spots tend thus to be repeated in any series of feathers growing one 

 below the other. 



Adult Female.— A typical, fully adult bird has the forehead and fore crown, 

 lores, face feathers around bare space, facial featherlets, sides of the neck, chin and 

 throat warm cinnamon ; the auriculars and those continuing down the side of the 

 neck tipped with grey, with a broad buff shaft-stripe bounded by two wide black 

 stripes ; crown and nape blue grey (Payne's blue), changing abruptly into the uniform 

 pattern of the rest of the upper parts — a pale rufous brown, thickly vermiculated with 

 blackish brown. The concealed portions of the contour feathers are identical in this 

 pattern down to the grey, decomposed basal barbs themselves. This characterizes not 

 only the lower neck, back, rump, upper tail-coverts, all wing-coverts, and exposed edges 

 of secondaries, tertiaries and rectrices, but also the sides, flanks and lower belly. 



Lower throat and entire breast clear burnt umber lacking the dark vermiculations, 

 which begin again rather abruptly on the lower belly. The paler cinnamon of the 

 throat is continued downward throughout the whole of this clear ventral area as a 

 pale buff shaft-stripe. 



The plumage of the lower parts darkens posteriorly, until in the under tail- 

 coverts, blackish brown predominates, the umber being reduced to a few irregular 

 mottlings. 



The flight feathers are, on the whole, a uniform dark brown, the mottling being 



