CABOT'S TRAGOPAN 107 



marginal mottled area. The lower belly and vent are pure white, the under tail-coverts 

 reverting to the mid-belly pattern. 



The more usual type of colouring of a young cock of this age shows a blackish 

 crown, with strong crimson markings on the nape and upper breast, a scattering of 

 imperfect buff ocelli over the mantle and a strong buffy tinge to the ventral plumage. 

 In some individuals we find the delayed outer primaries still far from their full length 

 at the end of October. In other birds these are full grown at this time. A bird of this 

 age measures: bill from nostril, 15; wing, 210; tail, 183; tarsus, 71 ; middle toe and 

 claw, 64 mm. 



As with the descriptions of other species of tragopans, so with Cabot's, various 

 authors have expressed surprise at finding young males in "transition " and "changing 

 plumage " both in the autumn and at the end of March. The particoloured garb attained 

 at the first autumn moult explains all this, and does away with the need of invoking 

 unseasonable and unheard-of moults. 



First Year Plumage, Female. — Four females shot at the same time and place 

 (Kuatun, Fokien) as the immature male described, show an interesting difference. The 

 primary moult is about equal in the two sexes, the 8th of the new moult just finishing 

 its growth, thus completing the series for this year. But while the rectrices of the male 

 have all been shed within a short space of time, none of the tails of the females show 

 signs of growth, although one or two of the feathers fall out at a touch, showing they 

 were just about to be shed. 



The female of this age still shows the dull buffy facial, chin and throat feathers of 

 the juvenile plumage, while, as to the rest of the lower parts, there is considerably less 

 white, the white ocelli being smaller, more buffy and the whole ventral plumage with 

 a more rufous cast. The upper plumage shows little or no difference from that of the 

 adult. The tail, however, is, of course, radically unlike that of the old birds, being 

 narrow, pointed and with transverse bars of successive rufous, pale buff and dark 

 brown, the central rectrices having as many as a dozen of these bars. The central 

 rectrices of the adult have only seven or eight very irregular crossbars with wide 

 intervals of black. 



There is somewhat more of the buff mottling on the flight feathers than in the fully 

 adult female. 



EARLY HISTORY AND SYNONYMY 



The early history of this species reveals nothing of especial interest. Even 

 nomenclaturists have contributed nothing exciting; almost without exception, when they 

 had cause to mention the bird, adopting the title first applied to it. When on a visit to 

 the United States, in the summer of 1857, for the purpose of studying hummingbirds, 

 John Gould examined the collection of birds belonging to Dr. Cabot of Boston. 

 Among them was a specimen of tragopan which Gould borrowed, took to England and 

 described in the same year, naming it, in honour of its owner, Ceriomis caboti. It was 

 then returned, and still remains in the city in which Dr. Cabot lived. 



Of the previous history of this specimen we know only that it came from China, 

 and was said to have been obtained at Macao, near Hong-Kong. 



