WHITE EARED-PHEASANT 191 



method of roosting and numberless other facts of the life history of birds which are of 

 as great value when observed in captive specimens as when based upon wild ones. 



DETAILED DESCRIPTION 



Adult Male. — Top of the head covered with short, curly, soft, velvety, black 

 feathers. Ear-coverts silvery white and greatly elongated, forming a long, white, up- 

 curving tuft on each side of the head. The entire plumage, above and below, pure white, 

 shading into grey on the longer wing and upper tail-coverts, the webbing of the feathers 

 being extremely loose and hairy; secondaries blackish brown, and somewhat glossed with 

 purple ; primaries dark brown. Tail composed of twenty feathers, purplish-bronze 

 towards the base, shading into dark greenish blue and deep purple towards the extremity 

 of the feathers. While the marginal portions of the barbs of these central feathers are 

 long, curved and very loose, there is no such disintegration as in the central rectrices 

 of mantchuricum and auritum, which seem to be of the nature of abrupt mutations 

 in length, of upper tail-coverts. 



Bare parts on the side of the head ; legs and feet, scarlet ; bill, reddish horn ; iris, 

 orange yellow. Length, 920; bill from nostril, 38; wing, 330; tail, 575; tarsus, 100; 

 middle toe and claw, 81 mm. The spurs are stout, short and conical. 



Among pure-blooded adult White Eared-pheasants there is great variation in the 

 exact shade or degree of whiteness. These birds unquestionably require several years 

 to eliminate entirely the brown pigment which predominates in the plumage of the 

 immature birds. Of the body plumage, the mantle seems to hold the grey tinge longer 

 than the remaining parts, but the primaries are the best index. In extreme examples 

 of whiteness (birds from farthest west, away from the haunts of auritum), the outer 

 webs of the primaries are pure white and the inner webs are pale grey. These indi- 

 viduals have the plumage as a whole pinkish white, while in less extreme birds it has 

 more of a creamy tinge. In these pinkish, western Tibetan birds the tail-feathers are 

 all grey at the base, shading into iridescent purple on the outer feathers. As we 

 proceed inward, a bronze-green tinge appears, and on the central rectrices this colour 

 occupies all the median portion of the vanes between the grey base and the purple 

 terminal third. 



Adult Female. — Similar in plumage to the male, but slightly smaller in size. 

 Bill from nostril, 27 ; wing, 298 ; tail, 400 ; tarsus, 97 ; middle toe and claw, 76 mm. 



Immature Male. — This individual was in its first-year plumage, beginning the 

 second autumn moult. The velvety crown plumage is shorter than in the fully adult 

 bird. The body plumage in general is of newly moulted white feathers, but mingled 

 with these are a number of unshed first-year feathers. These are decidedly brownish- 

 grey and of much more solid texture, less decomposed, than the succeeding white 

 plumage. These earlier feathers are confined chiefly to the mantle and median 

 wing-coverts. 



The secondaries are of the old, first-year plumage, and are wholly dark brown with 

 some slight sheen on the outer webs. The wing measures 290 mm. in length, as 



