268 A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 
merely a wrinkled skin, with no hint of the wattle, owing to the non-adhesion of the 
two walls. — 
The crow in this generation usually returns to the three- or four-syllabled call of 
the domestic rooster. I was given a small, white kekok whose pedigree was: 
Gallus ey 3 Cream Malay Game 2 
| 
| 
Cream Bekisar ¢ White Japanese Bantam Q 
| | | 
White Kekok ¢ 
This bird was especially interesting as regards its wattles and its crow. Across 
the front of its chin and neck was a flap of skin on which were strung five structures, 
the median wattle, outside of which were two larger gular wattles, while near the outer 
ends of the flap were the well-developed sub-auricular wattles. The crow was quite 
like the challenge of the wild Javan bird—an abrupt three-syllabled call, but at the 
end the beak of the bird remained open, and it strained ludicrously forward in a final 
silent exhalation, as if giving a long-drawn-out finale to the last syllable. Its audible 
crow was that of vavzus, the duration of posture and effort was clearly that of gallus ! 
The kekoks cannot be classified, and some individuals which I have seen vary even 
assymetrically, having parti-coloured adventitious feathers cropping out here and 
there. 
SYNONYMS BASED ON BEKISARS 
Gallus aeneus Cuvier, is one of the types with violet upper plumage, margined with 
golden yellow; comb with minute teeth ; a small median wattle. 
Gallus temminckit Gray, is a red phase of hybrid. All the plumage margined with 
golden chestnut; six coarse teeth in comb; well-developed median throat wattle, and 
small gular wattles. 
Gallus violaceus Kelsall, has the violet gloss dominant; a toothed comb, a good- 
sized median wattle. 
EARLY HISTORY 
The début of this bird in ornithological literature occurs in the form of a weirdly 
coloured plate given by Shaw and Nodder in their “ Naturalist’s Miscellany” of early 
but unknown date. The general characters are correct, however, and the entire comb 
and median wattle leave no doubt as to the identification. They call it Phascanus 
varius or variegated pheasant, and describe it as a ‘“‘black pheasant, with red front, 
glossy-green neck and back, and compressed ascending tail with the coverts hanging 
down on each side.” Aside from a more detailed but no more correct description, we 
are told that ‘this beautiful bird seems to be a nondescript, of which the present figure 
is the first that has been presented to the public. . . . The native country of this species 
is perhaps not clearly ascertained, but it is probably an Indian bird.” 
Temminck in his Wzstoive Naturelle Générale des Pigeons et des Gallinacés in 1813 
gives us the first authentic note. “‘ Ce¢te belle espece est tres abondante dans les grandes 
