TEMMINCK'S TRAGOPAN 95 



How many untold myriads of little downy chicks both in the hot, steamy depths of 

 Malayan jungles and amid the cool, dark foliage of lofty Himalayan spruces have, 

 through the ages, all unconsciously sought the solution of these problems ! Let us at 

 least give a single thought to the vast hosts which have failed, and then to the scattered 

 remnants which have succeeded. And no problem is ever simple or detached. Each 

 factor reaches out and touches some phase of hundreds of others, each of which, more or 

 less directly, has its influence, perhaps an influence dimly hidden in the ancestral line, 

 or developed a few minutes after the little chick hatches, or coming suddenly, for well or 

 ill, from some far-off happening. Thus must we look askance at theories of evolution 

 put forward as explanation of even the apparently simple fact, which do not humbly, 

 but frankly, acknowledge the tremendous import of the unknown factors. 



DETAILED DESCRIPTION 



Adult Male. — Hind crown and occiput orange-red, the feathers elongated into 

 a crest. All the rest of the feathered portions of the head black, including a wide 

 band around the gular lappet and a nuchal collar. Facial area, chin and throat very 

 sparsely covered with hair-like feathers. Visible portion of all the dorsal plumage 

 Indian red, each feather tipped with a small pearl-grey ocellus set in black. Even 

 on the mantle feathers there is a large black basal area, with pale buff bands or 

 mottling, and as we proceed backward this expands and sends up a shaft-streak 

 which joins the distal black area. When the feathers are in position, however, 

 there is no visible trace of this generalized pattern and colour, so long are the 

 lateral red barbs, and the effect is of a thick sprinkling of pearl-grey ocelli on 

 a background of Indian red. On the least lateral disturbance of the feathers 

 the sombre black, grey and buff appears and spoils the beautiful symmetry of the 

 external pattern. Nature is, indeed, often chary of her specialized pigments, and 

 allows no more than is actually necessary for superficial effect. The wing-coverts 

 are similar to the back, the pearl-grey ocelli becoming larger and diffused on the 

 longer coverts. The red and the ocellus disappear on the inner secondaries and 

 the flights are black with numerous mottled bars throughout their length, grey 

 on the secondaries and buff on the primaries. The longest upper tail-coverts are 

 almost monochrome, the red diluted to dull brown, covering all the exposed part 

 of the feather with the merest hint of a faint pearl tinge near the tip. The 

 margins of these feathers retain something of the original strength of colour of 

 the Indian red. The tail feathers are black at the tip, with the basal four-fifths 

 mottled and banded as on the flights. 



The under parts are of a clear, deep Indian red, the upper breast unmarked. 

 Here, however, begins abruptly a zone of large, paddle-shaped, pearl-grey, subterminal 

 spots which characterize every remaining feather of the under surface, becoming- 

 larger, but not diffused posteriorly, until on the under tail-coverts there remains 

 little more than a narrow margin of the red. Basally on the concealed portion 

 of the feather the red persists for some distance, then changes gradually to a 

 warm orange buff, the pearl-grey spot being continued down the shaft into a 

 basal dusky zone. There is no buff mottling as on the dorsal plumage. 



