BLYTH'S TRAGOPAN 85 



the slowly maturing characters which are gradually synthetically forming in the hidden 

 stream of blood. 



The iris is dark brown, legs dull reddish, gular skin showing through the skin dull 

 orange ; skin around the eyes livid. Measurements of first year males are : bill from 

 nostril, 16; wing, 241; tail, 163 mm. 



EARLY HISTORY AND SYNONYMY 



The first specimen of this species of Tragopan of which we have any record was a 

 male in captivity in Upper Assam. After the death of the bird, Dr. Jerdon obtained the 

 skin, thinking it was a Temminck's tragopan, and late in 1869 wrote to that effect to 

 the editor of "The Ibis." Dr. Jerdon soon realized, however, that the bird represented 

 an entirely new species, and in the " Journal of the Asiatic Society," in 1870, he described 

 and named it Ceriornis blythi. The discovery of this Tragopan was associated, as 

 was the first specimen of Geoffroy's blood partridge, with a new species of monal, the 

 bird in this case being Chalcophasis sclateri. 



A few months later, Dr. Jerdon obtained from Major Montagu a second live 

 Blyth's Tragopan, which he sent to the London Zoo, where it lived for six months. 

 But though these first two individuals were both captive birds, the species, in the 

 succeeding forty-odd years, has been very rarely seen alive in aviary or zoological 

 garden. 



The male type specimen at present in the British Museum is a well-made skin, but 

 the ventral plumage has faded from the normal cold grey to a decided brown. The end 

 of the tail is much abraded. 



Synonymy — Tragopan blythi blythi 



Ceriornis temmincki Jerdon (nee Gray), Ibis, 1870, p. 117 [Upper Assam] ; Newton, Ibis, 1870, p. 520. 



Ceriornis blythi Jerdon, Proc. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, 1870, p. 60 ; Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc., 1870, pp. 163, 219. 

 pi. 15 ; id. Ibis, 1870, p. 520; Gray, Hand-list Birds, II. 1870, p. 262; Gould, Birds Asia, VII. 1872, pi. 47; 

 Elliot, Mon. Phas. I. 1872, pi. 26; Godwin-Austin, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1872, p. 496 [Naga Hills] ; Hume, Stray 

 Feathers, VII. 1878, p. 472 [$ described]; Hume & Marshall, Game Birds India, I. 1878, p. 152, pi.; 

 Godwin-Austin, Ibis, 1878, p. 206 [Mozemah] ; id. Proc. Zool. Soc, 1879, p. 457, pi. XXXIX; Sclater, Proc. 

 Zool. Soc, 1884, p. 477 ; Hume, Stray Feathers, XI. 1888, p. 301 [N.E. Manipur]. 



Tragopan blythi Ogilvie-Grant, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., XXII. 1893, p. 276; Ogilvie-Grant, Hand-book 

 Game-birds, I. 1895, p. 228; Blanford, Fauna Brit. India, Birds, IV. 1898, p. 102; Oates, Game-birds India, I. 

 1898, p. 254; Baker, Jour. Bombay Nat. His. Soc, XII. 1899, p. 487 [North Cachar, des. female and juv. male] ; 

 Sharpe, Hand-list Birds, I. 1899, p. 33 ; Oates, Cat. Eggs Brit. Mus., I. 1901, p. 51, pi. V. fig. 5 ; Ghigi, Mem. R. 

 Ace Sci. Inst. Bologna, (5), X. 1903, p. 404 [Physiology of horns and lappet] ; Ghigi, Arch. Zool., I. 1903, p. 297 ; 

 Finn, Game-birds India and Asia, 191 1, p. 30; Venning, Jour. Bombay Nat. His. Soc, XXI, 1912, p. 632 ; Beebe, 

 Zoologica, I. No. 15, 1914, p. 270. 



Trogopan blythi blythi Baker, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, XXXV. 1914, p. 18. 



