50 A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 
one. The tailless cock and the others have gone down in the jungle just ahead of us, so, 
spreading out, we walk them out toward the next yum, every now and then hearing them 
as they hurry forward, rustling over the fallen leaves. Before we get to the edge of the 
jungle they have cleared off, without giving another chance, but a single cock Kalij, which 
has tarried a little longer than the others, gets up just as we too emerge from the trees, 
and is promptly bowled over and gathered. The mustard here is so high—up to our 
waists—that we may find some birds lying up in it, and accordingly we work through it 
in line, myself on the inside next the forest, and a few yards ahead of the men. Within 
the next few minutes two birds run through the mustard, and gain the jungle in front of 
me without giving a chance, and then a barking deer jumps up and comes bounding past 
me about forty yards off, barking as he starts, and barking again as he gains cover and 
stands inside, defying me. He is still barking as we pass where he stands, and I can 
hear the stamp of his forefeet, before panic again seizes him and he dashes further away 
into the depth of the forest. Nothing more shows up until I have reached the end of the 
mustard, and stand on the yard or two of bare ground which separates it from the 
nearest trees. As the men come nearer two or three jungle-fowl flit across it, and then 
there is a tremendous commotion as nearly a dozen birds, jungle-fowl and pheasants 
mixed together, rise into the air. A hasty shot at one of the former not only knocks it 
over, but also accounts for an unlucky hen pheasant which has come into the line of fire, 
and a second shot brings to bag another hen pheasant, which falls, a cloud of flying 
feathers, with a bang right on to the man with my luncheon-basket. After he has righted 
himself and collected my scattered provisions, we proceed on our way, and by noon, when 
we stop to have a rest and lunch, I have managed to bag twelve pheasants, six jungle- 
fowl, three imperial pigeon, and a couple of very evil-smelling white-eyed pochard, which, - 
however, are not disdained by the coolies.” 
DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
ApuLt MaLe.—The plumage in general is black, strongly glossed with purplish 
blue, especially on the upper surface, the posterior ventral plumage being almost dead 
black without the metallic gloss. The only decided colour character is found on the 
feathers of the back, rump and shorter upper tail-coverts, which have a very conspicuous 
white fringe of a normal width of about 5 mm. Throughout most of the western part 
of the range this varies but little, but to the eastward in many individuals we find a 
tendency toward the disintegration of this fringe. It either becomes narrower, or else the 
basal part is broken by dark mottling. Correlated with this there is often an extension 
of white as a very narrow terminal border over the inner, median wing-coverts and 
tertiaries and the longest tail-coverts. About fifty per cent. of the individuals have the 
extreme hidden bases of the median tail-feathers obscurely but thickly vermiculated with 
dirty white. This is almost invariably the case with birds from northern Burma east of 
the Irrawaddy, where the vermiculation often extends an inch or two beyond the visible 
portion of the feathers. The variations occurring along the geographical junction with 
nycthemerus and lineatus are multitudinous, and often asymmetrical, reflecting the 
widespread hybridization with these species. 
The crest is long, rather thin and partly disintegrated. The primaries are brown ; 
