176 A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 



DETAILED DESCRIPTION 



Adult Male. — Entire top of the head covered with a dense growth of short, 

 velvety feathers, black and recurved, large bare facial areas scarlet, covered with small 

 papillae. Featherlets just behind nostrils, chin, throat and the feathers below bare 

 facial area, creamy white ; the much elongated and stiffened ear-coverts glistening 

 silvery white. These latter are directed upward and extend clear of the plumage on 

 each side of the head as two oblique tufts or "ears." Occiput and the neck all around 

 glossy black. The anterior rows of occipital feathers have whitish median and basal 

 areas, and the abrupt line of recurved crown feathers brings these parts into view, 

 resulting in the appearance of a very narrow, more or less distinct transverse line of 

 dull white at this junction. 



On the upper plumage the black neck shades gradually into brown on the lower 

 mantle and wings, all the visible portions of the feathers being loose and hairy owing 

 to the abrupt shortening of the barbules and the disappearance of the barbicels on the 

 entire distal half of the vane. Even on the basal portion the latter are few and afford 

 little cohesive strength to the web. The wing-coverts are somewhat firm in texture, 

 but even the secondaries and primaries are much softer and more pliable than in most 

 pheasants. The wing-coverts and secondaries are quite strongly glossed with purple, 

 while the inner webs of the primaries show an equally strong sheen of bluish. The 

 lower back, rump and upper tail-coverts are a dull, silvery white ; the former area 

 rather stained with traces of the dorsal brown. 



On the ventral surface the black neck shades into the brown of the remaining 

 under plumage. The flanks and under tail-coverts are somewhat paler brown than the 

 surrounding feathers. 



The tail is the especial glory of this rather sombre-coloured pheasant, and consists 

 of twenty-two feathers. It is strongly graduated, the central feathers being two and 

 a half times as long as the outer ones. By far the larger portion of the feather is a 

 dull white, becoming stained with brownish towards the tip. The terminal portion is 

 brownish black glossed with rich purplish-blue. The two outer pairs are quite com- 

 pactly webbed, but from the third inwards, the outer web shows a disintegration of the 

 barbs, which at the same time become elongated and curved. This increases until in 

 the third from the central pair, while the inner web is quite firm, the outer web at a 

 corresponding level on the feather shows filamentous barbs four times the length of 

 those on the opposite side of the shaft. The two central pairs of tail-feathers in the 

 adult male are almost wholly filamentous, the barbs draping the entire tail when this 

 is closed. Even in these, however, there is a small spatulate tip of compact purple. 

 In the usual position, the tail-feathers are held in two rather vertical lines, and these 

 central disintegrated pairs are almost always raised considerably above the others. The 

 extremities of the four inner pairs are sharply depressed. 



In a considerable proportion of male birds there is a pronounced tendency for white 

 to appear in the wings. The bases of the primaries are often clear or mottled white, 

 and the outer webs of the same feathers are sometimes very conspicuously vermiculated 

 or mottled with the same colour. It is not unusual for most of the feathers of the 

 under surface to show a distinct terminal band of white. There is also much variation 



