LADY AMHERST PHEASANT 33 



four arched cross-bars of glossy steel blue, each some 10 mm. in width and with 

 interspaces of twice that width. These interspaces are broken up with spots and 

 irregular, broken lines of black running generally at right angles to the arched bars. 

 The outer web of the remaining feathers is barred straight across with black, the 

 interspaces being quite free from markings, but olive brown for the greater part, 

 the white showing only near the shaft. The inner webs are black, irregularly 

 mottled and lined with white, the relative amount of colour demanding this 

 description. The ventral surface of all but the central pair of feathers is dark olive 

 or brownish black. 



Lores, chin, throat, ear-coverts and side neck dull brownish black, sometimes 

 slightly glossed with dark green. Breast like the mantle, but with a wide, convex 

 fringe, the latter form giving it a jet-black appearance, although it is of the same 

 bronze green as the remainder of the feather. Lower breast, straight across behind 

 the green zone, belly and sides pure white. The flanks and thighs are barred and 

 marked with dark brown. Under tail-coverts irregularly black and white, the former 

 sometimes with a slight glossing of green. 



Bare facial skin blue, changing to greenish white near the gape ; the former 

 area sparsely covered with minute featherlets. Iris light cream ; mandibles yellowish 

 horn, upper darker; legs and feet, slate or bluish horn. 



Length, 1200 mm.; bill from nostril, 16; wing, 215; tail, 910; tarsus, 80; 

 middle toe and claw, 65. Spurs not very large and slow growing, but thin and 

 sharp, 8-10 mm. 



Adult Female. — A large series of this species, compared with the hens of the 

 golden pheasant, shows no constant characters of size or of colour of feather. The 

 skin of the face, however, is scantily feathered, quite bare in full-grown birds and 

 of a blue colour, as in the male. 



VARIATIONS 



I have observed, and later dissected, several females in the process of acquiring 

 male plumage, and when in this stage they are of unusual beauty. This is only 

 transitional, as after a few moults the plumage closely resembles that of the male 

 bird. Even in the full-plumaged male there is an evanescent tinge of blue on the 

 terminal part of the cape feathers, and when the changing female has reached a 

 half-way stage, this same tint is quite dominant and forms a beautiful pattern, not 

 at all like the ruff pattern of the adult male. The feathers in this transitory 

 condition are of a very delicate bluish grey with several large, irregular markings, 

 both shaft-lines and spots, of very pale red. The fringe is narrow and black, then 

 comes an equally narrow band of fiery copper bronze, then a wide area of clear 

 grey, and finally a narrow, irregular black line before the main area of bluish grey 

 is reached. 



First Year Plumage. — This differs from the juvenile and adult female chiefly 

 in the transitional stages of the head, neck and central tail-feathers, the plumage 

 of which, coming in late, partakes more or less of the adult patterns and colours. 



