PALAWAN PEACOCK PHEASANT 95 



black. The pale shafts are sometimes emphasized on the breast feathers. Orbital skin 

 pinkish. Bill black, with paler tip ; legs and feet horn colour. Iris hazel brown. 



Length, 400 mm.; bill from nostril, 12; wing, 170; tail, 145; tarsus, 55; middle 

 toe and claw, 46 mm. Spurs absent, although a low rounded nodule indicates the 

 position of the anlagen of these organs. 



Juvenile Plumage. — Very similar to the adult plumage of the female, with the 

 exception of the crest and tail. Top of the head of short, brownish black feathers, with 

 only the faintest trace of a median crest. Neck feathers short, recurved, dull brown. 

 Dorsal plumage rufous brown, indistinctly mottled with black, feathers of the back, 

 rump, scapulars and wing-coverts with pale buff shaft-stripes. Wing-coverts with a 

 large, dark, subterminal area, bounded along the margin by a mottled band of rufous 

 brown. Secondaries mottled rufous on the outer webs, primaries plain dark brown. 



Thinly feathered face, chin and throat whitish, shading into the dull brown of the 

 ventral plumage. Upper tail-coverts all of normal length, the longest not noticeably 

 different from the others. Rectrices twenty-two in number, long, slender and some- 

 what curved, dark brown, mottled with rufous brown on the outer webs. On the outer 

 webs of the three or four outer pairs, incipient traces of ocelli are apparent in the form of 

 irregular dark spots. 



Bill dark brown, paler at the tips ; legs and feet pale brown ; facial skin yellowish. 

 No spurs distinguishable. Length, 290 mm. ; bill from nostril, 9 ; wing, 140; tail, 108 ; 

 tarsus, 48 ; middle toe and claw, 42 mm. 



The sexes are almost indistinguishable, the males having the mottling a little 

 coarser, and the dark spots more pronounced. 



First Year Male Plumage. — This moult brings the males still closer to the 

 adult females in appearance. The elongate crest of stiff, close-vaned, narrow feathers is 

 exactly like the female and wholly different from that of the adult male ; the white 

 superciliary and nuchal lines are well developed, to be later intensified or wholly lost 

 according to the stage of degeneration in the adult. 



The black subterminal spots are very strongly developed on the inner median and 

 greater wing-coverts and the inner secondaries. The longest row of upper tail-coverts 

 have occasional traces of ocelli, and even green central nuclei. The tail-feathers show 

 coarser and paler buff mottling than in the adult female and the black frames of the 

 ocelli are much better defined. Length, 415 mm.; bill from nostril, 11; wing, 180; 

 tail, 155 ; tarsus, 63 ; middle toe and claw, 52 mm. The spurs are rudimentary rounded 

 knobs, the upper pair usually appearing first. The sequence of tail moult at this stage 

 is the same as in the succeeding ones. 



In a female of this age, the pale buff shaft-marks are remarkably developed, appear- 

 ing over the entire neck and mantle as drops or spots, and on the remaining dorsal 

 plumage as conspicuous shaft-streaks, each terminated by an enlarged spot. 



Second Year Male Plumage. — This moult begins with the tail and longest 

 row of upper tail-coverts, the growth of these being apparently accelerated owing to 

 their important function in courtship. They may be almost full grown and in colour 



