102 THE ARGUS PHEASANT. 



end of primaries, i8'0 to 19/0 ; to end of longest tertiaries, 

 33*0 to 34*5 ; tarsus, 4-5 to 4/8 ; bill from gape, 1*32 to 2 # o. 

 Weight, 4*5 to Shifts. 



Females. — Length, 27-25 to 30*25 ; expanse, 35*0 to 40*0; 

 tail from vent, 12*5 to 13*0; wing, 11*5 to 13*0; tarsus, 3-62 

 to 375 ; bill from gape, ro to 175. Weight, 3*25 to 

 375ft>s. 



The male has the legs and feet bright red, sometimes even a 

 vermilion red. The female has them a paler and duller red, 

 sometimes a litharge red ; the bill and claws are white, slightly- 

 tinged blue ; the cere, in the male, the same colour as the bill ; in 

 the female pale brown ; irides wood to dark brown ; the facial 

 skin dull pale indigo, to dark plumbeous blue. 



A nestling male measured : — 



Length, 6*25 ; expanse, n*o ; tail from vent, 07 ; wing, 3*3 ; 

 tarsus, 175 ; bill from gape, 075. Weight, 2*5 ozs. 



The bill was pale horny ; irides pale brown ; eyelids grey 

 brown. 



The Plate, though carefully drawn, seems to have been 

 taken from a faded specimen, and conveys no adequate idea 

 of the marvellous depth and richness of the tints of the 

 male's plumage. The bill is wrongly coloured, as are the claws, 

 and the tint of the facial skin is too pale altogether. The 

 plate is wrongly lettered. 



As for the nondescript on the right, supposed to be a female, 

 it reminds one of an amateur's daguerreotype portrait in the 

 early days of photography, and as the hen could never be iden- 

 tified by it, I will give a description of her : — 



The female wants the crest and the elongated tail feathers 

 of the male, and has the whole top and back of the head, in- 

 cluding the somewhat elongated bristly feathers of the lower 

 part of the occiput and nape, and the back of the neck, speckled 

 and narrowly barred greyish, or sometimes fulvous white and 

 blackish dusky ; the chin and throat and sides of the head 

 and front of the neck, as in the male, bare or nearly so, with 

 sparse white hair-like feathers ; the base of the neck all round 

 deep ferruginous, altogether unmarked, or a little freckled and 

 marked with zig-zag black lines ; breast and upper abdomen 

 ferruginous, more or less orange, and becoming yellower on the 

 abdomen, everywhere extremely closely vermicellated with 

 zig-zaggy black lines ; lower abdomen, tibial plumes, and flanks, 

 a dusky greyish brown very finely, and on the lower abdomen 

 and vent obsoletely, vermicellated with pale reddish brown ; 

 lower tail-coverts dark brown, finely speckled and vermicellated 

 with pale rusty ; winglet and primaries deep chestnut, irregular- 

 ly variegated with black lines and spots ; upper back like the 

 breast, but the black markings rather more preponderant ; 

 secondaries, tertiaries, and wing-coverts black, comparatively 



