108 A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 



Nothing more was heard of Cabot's Tragopan until Robert Swinhoe, six years later, 

 purchased a young live bird from a dealer in Hong-Kong, which he shipped to Calcutta, 

 but the bird died on the way. The first live bird reached England in 1882. 



By recent search I unearthed the type of Cabot's Tragopan, a badly mounted bird 

 which, until I inquired for it, had been hidden away in the storage collection of the 

 Boston Society of Natural History. I have been able to study the bird carefully and 

 compare it with other specimens. The small label bears the inscription, " 5673 Ceriornis 

 caboti, Gould. Type." This individual, as we have seen, was the subject of the plate 

 in volume vii of Gould's " Birds of Asia." 



The type is in general adult plumage, and there seems no excuse for the errors in 

 the plumage of the head which the artist made, as the specimen shows no black beneath 

 the lateral neck patch, while the rufous breast-band is well developed. The chin, too, 

 shows the typical scanty growth of degenerate feathers, and nothing like the thick black 

 chin plumage with lateral wattles as depicted on the plate. On the other hand, there is 

 small wonder that the artist continued the mottling and barring of the tail to the very 

 tip of the feathers, as one-quarter of the entire length of this organ has been neatly 

 snipped away with scissors, thus removing the black band which is so marked a 

 character of the adult male. On the outer tail feathers there is, indeed, a trace of the 

 solid colour, but so slight that with but this one known specimen no one would have 

 portrayed it. The imagination of the artist is clearly seen in the much too extreme 

 attenuation of the missing feather tips. They are in reality much more rounded. Gould 

 makes no mention of this imperfection, and we cannot help recalling the more com- 

 mendable method of George Edwards, who, more than a century before Gould, removed 

 all chance of error as to the length of the frayed tail of his Satyr Tragopan by " casting 

 it behind a tree." The type specimen is now in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 

 Harvard University. 



Synonymy — Tragopan caboti (Gould) 



Ceriornis caboti Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1857, p. 161 (original description, China), Birds of Asia, VII. 1858, 

 pi. 48; Swinhoe, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1863, p. 307 [? southern China]; Sclater, List of Phasianidae, 1863, p. 11 

 [? China]; Swinhoe, Ibis, 1865, p. 350 [Juv. ; Hills of Kwangsi ?] ; Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1870, p. 164; Gray, 

 Hand-List of Birds, II. 1870, p. 262 ; Swinhoe, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1861, p. 399 [south-west China]; Salvadori, Proc. 

 Zool. Soc, 1871, p. 695 ; Elliot, Monograph Phasianidae, I. 1872, pi. 25 ; David and Oustalet, Oiseaux Chine, 1877, 

 p. 419, pi. in [mountains between Fokien and Kiangsi] ; Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1882, p. 421 [first male in 

 captivity]; Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1883, p. 388 [first female in captivity]; La Touche, Ibis, 1892, p. 494 [Fokien] ; 

 Rickett and La Touche, Ibis, 1898, p. 333 [Kuatun, north-west Fokien] ; La Touche, Ibis, 1900, p. 49 [Kuatun ; 

 nest and egg; colour of soft parts]; Rickett, Ibis, 1900 p. 59 [Yanakan, north central Fokien]; Salvadori, Ibis, 

 1902, p. 253; La Touche and Rickett, Ibis, 1905, p. 58 [central Fokien]; Goodchild, Bird Notes, 1905, p. 63; 

 Mitchell, Proc. Zool. Soc, 191 1, p. 522 [longevity]. 



Ceriornis modestus David MS., David and Oustalet, Oiseaux de la Chine, 1877, p. 419. 



Tragopan caboti Ogilvie-Grant, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., XXII. 1893, p. 277; Ogilvie-Grant, Hand-book Game- 

 birds, I. 1895, p. 229, pi. XVIII; St. Quintin (quoted), Avicultural Magazine, 1902, VIII. 4, p. 73 [nesting in 

 captivity] ; Ghigi, Mem. R. Ace. Sci. 1st. Bologna, (5), X. 1903, pp. 394, 404, 406; tav. I, II. [physiology of horns 

 and lappet; habits; description of $] ; Ghigi, Arch. Zool., I. 1903, p. 297 [origin of the ocelli]; Martens, Jour, 

 fur Ornith., 1910, p. 448 [distinction between $ and juv. £\ ; Finn, Game-birds India and Asia, 191 1, p. 31 ; Beebe, 

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



Cabot's Tragopan St. Quintin, The Field, XLVIII, No. 2556, Dec. 21, 1901, p. 979 [nesting habits in 

 captivity; moult]; St. Quintin, Avicultural Magazine, 3, 1903, p. 95 [breeding habits in captivity]. 



