214 
TIIE MACARTNEY COCK. 
Euplocomus ignilus, 
PLATE XIX. Male. XX. Female. 
Fire-backed Pheasant of Java, Macartney, Embassy to 
China , pi. xiii Phasianus ignitus, Lath. Index Ornilho- 
logicus . — Houpife're Macartney Callus Macartneyi, 
Temminck, Pigeons et Gallinaces, ii. p. 273. 
The first notice of this very beautiful bird is in 
the description of the embassy to China, under Lord 
Macartney. It was met with by Sir George Staun- 
ton in a menagerie at Batavia, and figured in the 
large Atlas of Plates accompanying the above men- 
tioned work. Temminck subsequently gave a des- 
cription of it in his Gallinaceous Birds, made from 
many specimens received from Sumatra. 
The length of the adult male is about 2 feet. The 
skin of the nostrils stretches backwards, and covers 
the sides of the head behind the eyes, and is of a 
bluish-purple. Upon the centre of the crown there 
is an upright crest, composed of feathers witli a 
naked shaft, and expanding at the tip into a num- 
ber of slender barbs, which spread out and form a 
broadish crown. The head, neck, breast, belly, and 
upper part of the back, are of a very deep black, 
