28 A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 
Tail-feathers black, glossed with purplish green, and with the one or two middle 
pairs more or less vermiculated with buff. Chin, throat and ear-coverts dull black. 
Under-parts of greyish white; lanceolate feathers usually darker than in a@/bocristatus, 
the basal dark brown being much more in evidence. Abdomen and flanks dull 
blackish brown, the under tail-coverts glossed with green. 
Facial skin scarlet, rather thickly dotted with minute featherlets. Irides dark 
hazel. Bill greenish horn colour, dusky at base of culmen and around nostrils. . 
Feet brownish grey; spurs dusky. Weight 1 lb. 12 ozs. to 2 lbs. 4 ozs. 
Length, 580 to 660 mm.; expanse, 660 to 750; wing, 220 to 235; tail, 240 to 
280; tarsus, 72; middle toe and claw, 60; bill from nostril, 18. 
ADULT FEMALE.—Rich warm brown, with the feathers tipped with greyish white 
on the upper plumage, and more widely with white below. Upper plumage from 
the mantle backward, including wings, finely vermiculated with black. The rump and 
upper tail-coverts contrast with the central tail-feathers in being of a lighter, more 
buffy brown, the vermiculations of the latter being predominately rufous on the 
outer, and paler buffy white on the inner webs. Otherwise, as in the female of 
albocristatus. Weight 1 lb. 6 ozs. to 1 Ib. 12 ozs. 
The colours of the eye and fleshy parts are the same as in albocristatus. 
Length, 480 to 510 mm.; expanse, 630 to 680; wing, 210; tail, 200; tarsus, 65; middle 
toe and claw, 56; bill from nostril, 17. 
The female Nepal Kaleege has, on the whole, the vermiculations of the middle 
tail-feathers less coarse than in adlbocristatus, while the grey margins of the upper 
plumage are broader than in melanonotus. In the series of perfectly fresh skins of 
the three species, /eucomelanus is intermediate in general tone of brown colouring, 
_albocristatus being paler and melanonotus darker. Elsewhere I have described how 
radically the skins of these birds change in time, so that this distinction seems to 
be lost in museum skins. 
Cuick IN Down.—The only information we have of a wild caught Kaleege of 
this age, is the description given by Dr. Scully of a chick captured in Nepal on 
June 10. The wing-feathers were just sprouting, and measured 50 mm. in 
length. Head rufous brown, body above dark brown, below buff. Each feather of 
the new juvenile scapulars and wing-coverts had a buff tip and a sub-terminal black 
bar. Legs and feet orange; bill greenish-yellow horn. 
JUVENILE PLUMAGE.—Young birds of three months resemble the female in 
general, with the bill pale at the tip, the facial skin pale fleshy red and the legs and 
feet pale brown. In this plumage the black sub-terminal bars on the upper plumage 
are the most conspicuous character. 
First YEAR PLuMAGE.—The adult plumage is assumed at the age of about five 
months, but traces of the juvenile brown often remain on many of the new feathers 
of the upper plumage and wings. 
