THE FIREBACK PHEASANT. 
469 
The crest on the top of the head is deep purple-black, and the naked skin round, the eyes, 
which forms a kind of wattle over the nostrils and below the chin, is a bright scarlet. The 
upper surface of the body is pure silver-white, delicately pencilled with wavy black lines. 
The tail is also white, pencilled boldly with black, except the two central feathers, which are 
wholly white, long, and curved. The breast and abdomen are of the same deep purple-black 
as the crest. The colors of the female are quite dissimilar, so that the bird would hardly be 
AMHERST’S PHEASANT.— Thaumalea amherstice. 
recognized as belonging to the same species. She is much smaller in size, has a smaller crest, 
and a shorter tail, of a brown color, streaked on the outer feathers with black and white. 
Instead of the silvery- white of the male, her back is grayish-brown, irregularly marked and 
waved with narrow black bars. The breast and abdomen are grayish-white, marked with 
brown and barred with black. (For illustration, see page 470.) 
The very handsome Fireback is an Asiatic bird, inhabiting Sumatra, and in all proba- 
bility several other neighboring localities. 
The popular name of Fireback is very appropriate, being given to the bird on account of 
the fiery red feathers which decorate a considerable portion of the back. It is remarkable for 
the great size of the naked skin about the eyes, which nearly covers the whole head, running 
over the ears and forehead, and descending well below the chin. The color is of a bluish 
purple during the life of the bird, but after its death the color darkens into dark brown, as is 
generally the case with bare skin both in beasts and birds, and in the stuffed species it shrinks, 
like wetted leather, and entirely loses its former fulness and shape. 
