WHITE-TAILED WATTLED PHEASANT 157 
it lived only a few weeks. Treacher says that he found difficulty in keeping these 
pheasants alive, but Hewett’s experience was otherwise, as he tells us that they 
thrive in captivity on paddy, boiled rice and fruit. He goes on to say, however, that 
he could never keep any of the hens alive, as they refused food and seemed to 
mope, and would die in a day or two. The hens I had in captivity were, on the 
contrary, more gentle and ready to feed than the cock-birds, and it was a hen which 
lived on board ship from Singapore until actually within sight of the harbour of 
New York. Such isolated and conflicting experiences are of little value in forming 
any opinion, and doubtless represent merely individual physique or temper on the 
part of the birds. It is my opinion that when a systematic attempt is made to 
procure a number of these birds alive, they will be found to be no more delicate 
than argus pheasants. 
DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
ApuLtt MALE.—Feathered parts of head and upper neck dull black, with slight 
steel-blue terminal margins. Chin and throat thinly feathered, plain black. Neck 
all around and breast shining crimson, most of the feathers with a narrow steel-blue 
margin. A typical feather from these areas is divided into three equal parts, the 
basal third of fluffy grey down; a middle third of normal black vane, and a distal 
third of shining crimson. At the beginning of this latter area the barbules become 
very abruptly shortened, lose all trace of barbicels, and throughout its length are so 
imperfect and minute, that to the eye the shafts of the barbs appear bare. At the 
very tip the barbules are slightly longer, forming the exceedingly narrow terminal 
steel-blue band. 
Posterior to the neck and breast (and also somewhat with advancing age) the 
crimson disappears apparently rather abruptly, the dead black mid-area pushing up 
and taking its place, while the steel-blue band widens—this being the general 
character of all the body plumage, except that the blue terminal band is absent from 
the primaries, and outer secondaries together with their coverts, the abdomen, thighs 
and the extremely short under tail-coverts. The steel band is much narrower on the 
ventral than on the dorsal plumage. 
The primaries are dark brown, not dead black, and in a considerable percentage, 
more than forty per cent., of wild shot birds, they show as an interesting variation 
the presence of more or less white. This may be present on as many as nine of 
the primaries, occurring chiefly on the basal third of the feathers. This colour is 
usually quite pure on the outer two or three feathers, but becomes mottled and 
clouded with dark brown as we pass inward. It is rather asymmetrical in occurrence 
in the total: amount on each feather of a corresponding pair in the two wings. 
None of the adjoining coverts, either upper or lower, show any traces, and indeed 
the majority, some sixty per cent., of the adult males which I have examined show 
no trace whatever of this alar-whitening. Nevertheless, its occurrence again and 
again in birds collected in different parts of Borneo stamps the character as one, while 
wholly individual, yet in no sense pathologically albinistic; very probably correlated 
in some way with the white colour of the tail-feathers. 
