THE GREY PEACOCK-PHEASANT, III 



and with a tiny white spot on the shaft just at the tip ; the 

 longer upper tail-coverts and tail are the same hair brown, with 

 numerous widely separated, irregular imperfect transverse 

 bands of spots and specks, whiter on the tips of the longer tail- 

 coverts, buffy elsewhere ; each of the tail-feathers has near the 

 tip a small imperfect dusky metallic green ocellum, surround- 

 ed by an ill-defined blackish band and very inconspicuous. In 

 some specimens the ocelli are more, in others less, developed, but 

 they are always very inconspicuous as compared with those of the 

 male. Sometimes there are, I believe, traces of ocelli on the 

 upper tail-coverts, but there are none in the specimens now before 

 me ; the breast and greater part of the abdomen hair brown, 

 minutely speckled, chiefly towards the margins of the feathers, 

 with buffy dots and zig-zags ; vent, tibial plumes, and lower tail- 

 coverts plain brown ; the latter, however, a little speckled with 

 white towards their tips. The female of course has no spurs. 



During the Lushai Expedition, the tail-feathers of a male 

 Polyplectrum were picked up in a village, which I at once saw 

 could not have belonged to either the Grey or Malay Peacock- 

 Pheasants. In the former species the freckling spots are greyish 

 white on a greyish brown ground ; in the latter they are hair 

 brown on a buff ground, and much larger than in the former. 



In the tail feathers, above alluded to, the spots are about the 

 same size as in the Grey Peacock-Pheasant, but are less closely 

 set and are pale buff on a hair brown ground. The ocelli of 

 the central-feathers are more elongated ovals than in tibetanum 

 and emerald green. 



I have since satisfied myself that these feathers must have 

 belonged to another species hitherto known only from Cochin 

 China, but probably extending into Siam, Germain's Peacock- 

 Pheasant (P. germaini, Elliot.) 



This bird may extend into the Lushai country, or the fea- 

 thers may have been brought there ; there is no saying ; I have 

 been able to learn nothing further since this one set of tail- 

 feathers was obtained, but still I think it advisable to give a 

 very brief description of it. 



It is most like P. tibetanum, but it has no white throat, and 

 the bare orbital skin is bright crimson and not pale fleshy pink 

 or fleshy yellow as in tibetanum. 



" It is readily distinguished," says Elliot, " from all the 

 members of this genus, and may be described as follows : — Ge- 

 neral colour blackish brown, irregularly spotted with light 

 brown ; head and back part of the neck black, each feather 

 barred with white ; back, wings, and tail-coverts with metallic 

 spots, in some lights of a dark lustrous green, in others of a rich 

 purple ; primaries dark brown ; upper mandible black ; lower 

 horn-colour ; feet black." 



