60 A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 
DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
ApuLT MALe.—Top of the head and elongated, stiffened crest black, glossed 
on the exposed portions of the feathers with metallic purplish blue. Contour feathers 
of the upper plumage finely vermiculated with black and white in equal proportions, 
so finely on the exposed portions that the general appearance is of a uniform grey. 
The areas thus characterized are the back and sides of the neck, mantle, back, 
rump, shorter upper tail-coverts, scapulars, lesser and medium wing-coverts. The 
alternate lines extend obliquely across the vanes. Basally they become coarser, and 
the black increases until it is dominant. Primaries and their coverts blackish brown, 
with irregular, confused white vermiculation. Secondaries black, with narrow but 
stronger white lines, those on the outer web often split longitudinally. Tertiaries 
gradually merge into the greyish vermiculation of the back. | 
Tail of sixteen feathers, moderately long, curved and compressed. Central pair 
pale buffy-white, except for the basal three-fourths of the outer web, which is 
vermiculated with fine black lines. On the succeeding feathers this black increases, 
until about the third pair it becomes dominant, especially on the outer web. On the 
outer, shorter rectrices the white is reduced to irregular coarse vermiculations on 
both webs. ‘The tips of the second and third pairs remain clear buffy white, however. 
Chin, throat, lower neck and remaining under-plumage black with a faint 
bluish gloss. Sides of the neck and breast with wide shaft-stripes, confined almost 
altogether to the outer webs of the feathers. Mandibles greenish horn colour, 
irregularly blackening toward the base. Nasal cere greyish. Entire facial skin bare, 
and brilliant scarlet in colour, covered with numerous finger-like papillae. At the 
breeding season this brilliant ornament is swollen and extended into three well- 
marked wattles or projections, one superior and anterior to the eyes, a second at 
the extreme posterior portion, and the third gular, hanging down below the gape. 
Lower eyelid pale bluish. Iris hazel-red in fully adult birds at the breeding 
season. Legs and feet usually flesh-colour, spurs darker. Weight, 2$ to 3 lbs. 
Length, 630 to 740 mm.; bill from nostril, 23; wing, 250; tail, 290; tarsus, 85; 
middle toe and claw, 65; spurs, 15 mm. 
VARIATIONS.—The commonest variation among fully adult birds from well within 
the limits of distribution, is in the amount of striping on the under surface. 
From being confined to the sides of the neck and breast, this may extend over all 
the ventral plumage. The markings of the central tail-feathers are never exactly 
alike in any two birds. In fully adult males from localities in the very centre of 
distribution I have seen the entire webs covered with the markings, while from a 
near-by locality the birds would show the more normal, clear, whitish inner web 
and tips. When we approach the boundaries we at once begin to see the effects 
of hybridization—with horsfeldi on the north and west, and xzycthemerus on the 
east, and the variations as a consequence become innumerable. 
Aputt FEMALE.—Top of head and long crest rufous brown, mottled with black ; 
remainder of the upper plumage olive-brown, very faintly mottled with black ; all of 
the feathers of the upper and side neck and mantle with a conspicuous white shaft- 
