THE GREY-BELLIED TRAGOPAN. 



3D 



One fine male before me has two spurs on the same level on 

 one leg. I presume this to be a purely accidental monstrosity. 



The female is considerably smaller. 



Length, i8 # o to 20'0 ; wing, 8*5 to p/o ; tarsus, 2-9 to 3*1; 

 mid- toe, 2*2 ; its claw, straight, 07 ; bill from frontal feathers 

 straight to point, 0*98 ; from gape, i'4. 



The Plate. — A copy, I believe, of one of Mr. Wolff's, appears 

 to represent tolerably the adult male. The general tone, how- 

 ever, of the mantle, rump and upper tail-coverts is not dark 

 enough, and the red that enters largely into the colouration of 

 these parts is really a rich maroon. I doubt also the correctness 

 of the colouration of the face and gular skin. 



When our plate was prepared, the female, recently procured 

 for me, together with adult and young males, by Mr. G. Damant, 

 C.S., was still unknown, and it is necessary, therefore, to de- 

 scribe her. 



In the female, the ground of the entire mantle is black, 

 each feather very finely, almost microscopically, freckled, chiefly 

 along a broad central band with more or less rufous buff, and 

 with one large, irregular zig-zaggy, somewhat arrowhead-shaped, 

 spot towards the tip ; in connection with this spot one or more 

 irregular wavy bars generally go off right and left towards, or to 

 the margins of feathers, which bars are often more ferruginous 

 than the rest of the markings : these spots are most conspicuous 

 on the interscapulary region, and almost disappear on the rump 

 and upper tail-coverts, where the frecklings, on the other hand, 

 extend over nearly the whole feather ; the tail is blackish brown, 

 thickly set with irregular, mottled, wavy transverse bars of 

 ferruginous and ferruginous buff; the longest upper tail-coverts 

 partake of the deep ferruginous tint of the tail markings ; the 

 primaries and secondaries much like the tail, but the ground a 

 shade browner, and the markings less thickly set and nearly 

 confined to the outer webs ; the coverts and tertiaries partake 

 of the characters of the mantle, as do the head and back of 

 the neck, though in both these latter the markings are more 

 bar-like and much less conspicuous. 



The chin and upper throat are greyish creamy ; the feathers 

 margined with greyish brown, and with traces of a spot of this 

 running in almost to the shaft, about half way up the feather ; 

 the rest of the front and sides of the neck and upper-breast 

 in much the same style as the back of the neck and mantle, 

 but the ground brown, the frecklings duller in colour and more 

 diffuse, and the spot only indicated. 



The rest of the breast and the abdomen a sort of greyish 

 creamy, thickly set with freckly, imperfect bar-like brown 

 markings, having a tendency to mark out and define plain 

 patches or spots of the ground colour, towards the tips of the 

 feathers, analogous to the spots on the upper surface. 



20 



