140 A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 
about 6 mm. in length. The tail of sixteen almost black feathers is growing rapidly, 
and from the outer pairs inward, the three outer pairs having already completed their 
growth. 
A male in a somewhat later stage shows the full juvenile plumage, the whole top 
of the head from the cere back now being feathered. Down the nape and hind neck, 
however, there is only a very narrow plumaged area, two lines of feathers only, all 
the rest of the hind and side neck being still covered with a dense growth of the orange 
rufous down. The crown feathers are black with very wide chestnut tips, which, 
however, are absent on the nape and narrow nuchal line, these showing slight bluish 
glints among the black. The dorsal body plumage—mantle, back and rump—is basally 
dark brown, with an indistinct black sub-terminal bar, and a wide dull rufous mottling 
at the extremity. 
The scapulars and wing-coverts show this pattern to a very pronounced degree, 
and thus present a very different appearance, the characters most apparent being a 
rich rufous tip or terminal band, followed by a black band or two lateral black ocelli, 
The inner secondaries show a very slight rufous marginal mottling, but the flights and 
rectrices are otherwise plain brownish black. 
The under-parts exhibit a fairly dense growth of white (eatHers on the chin and 
throat, but the lower neck has only a very sparse covering of feather sheaths, which 
show the skin almost bare. The ventral plumage is of black-centred feathers with the 
loose webbing margined with grey or white—a most indescribable mass of downy 
plumage with no regular character or pattern. 
The post-juvenile moult has just begun in the primaries. No. 1 is well grown, 
and Nos. 2 and 3 have just been dropped. Nos. 9 and 10 are still growing, and even 
No. 7 is not yet dry. 
The tail is about in the same condition, or a trifle more delayed. All the juvenile 
feathers are full grown, but the outer pair have been dropped, and the new black 
incoming feathers already measure 33 mm., with about 12 out of the sheath. 
TRANSITION BETWEEN JUVENILE AND First YEAR PLuMAGE.—Three males 
collected in August are all in about the same condition, half moulted into adult. 
dress. 
. In all these birds the long, rufous crown feathers stop abruptly at the hinder 
crown, their rear edges overhanging the shorter posterior feathers like a cap. From 
directly at their posterior edge the first few crest feathers are sprouting. The occiput, 
nape, chin, throat and neck feathers are short and recurved; those of the occiput, 
ear-coverts and side neck are dark brown; the chin and throat white, with a sprinkling 
of new black feathers. The nape and hind neck show a wide border of shining greenish 
blue, not the purplish blue of the fully adult. The change shown by the moult of 
the wing-coverts and flight-feathers is abrupt, from the faded brown, mottled-tipped 
old feathers to the new brownish black ones. The under-parts show as yet little change 
from the chaotic, near-female, brown, grey and white of the juvenile plumage, except 
along the sides, where the golden rufous shows as two broad solid bands. 
In all three individuals the stage of the wing moult is almost identical. The 
inner five primaries are new, No. 5 being still ensheathed, while the outer five are 
