hen P. tibetanum, when it was observed that they always kept
in the same manner close behind the mother, who held her
tail widely spread, thus completely covering them ; and there
they continually remained out of sight, only running forward
when called by the hen to pick up some food she had found,
and then immediately retreating to their shelter.
T H E FOLLOWING are the dimensions and colours of the soft parts
recorded in the flesh from two fine adult males and females :—
Males.—Length, 2475 to 2 & 0 ; expanse, 25-25 to 2 7 - 0 ; tail
from vent, I2'6TO I4'2 ; wing, 8'2 to 8 6 ; tarsus, 2'9 to 3 0 ; bill
from gape, I'J to i'4. Weight, 1-5 to I75LBS.
Females.—Length, I9'0 ; expanse, 22-5 to 23'6 ; tail,_ 8'3 ;
win";, 7'i to 7 ' 6 ; tarsus, 2'5 to 2 7 5 ; bill from gape, i'25>
Weight, 1407.S. to 1 lb.
In one male the legs and feet were blackish ; t he claws black ;
upper mandible and tip of lower mandible black ; rest of lower
mandible and facial skin pale fleshy yellow ; irides white. The
females had the legs and feet very dark plumbeous ; upper mandible
dark horny brown, paler on cere ; lower mandible pale
brown ; irides deep grey ; facial skin pale dingy fleshy yellow.
T H E PLATE gives a fair idea of the male, but it seems necessary
to give a description of the other sex, the diminutive
portrait of which might stand for any thing, and is more like
the Malayan Peacock-Pheasant than the present species.
The female is a much smaller bird than the male, and has less of
a brush crest; the chin and throat greyish white ; the whole of
the rest of the head and neck all round rather dark brown, very
finely and obsoletely barred with a lighter and more fulvous shade
of brown, and decidedly shaded greyer on the forehead and crown;
many or most of the feathers of the lower half of the neck,
especially in the front and at the sides, with minute white shaft
specks or spots ; the primaries and their greater coverts plain
glossy rather pale brown, of a peculiar tinge, approaching somewhat
to liver brown ; the whole of the rest of the visible portions
of the closed wings and scapulars, and intcrscapulary region,
hair brown ; the feathers with somewhat widely separated
irregular narrow speckly transverse bars of pale buff, in places
ferruginous buff; the feathers are margined at the tips with a
similar band of somewhat coalescing speckles and spots which
are white, or nearly so, in most specimens ; inside this the tip of
the feather is black or blackish, with, in many cases, a faint dull
purplish gloss in parts. This again is bounded above by an
imperfect transverse speckly bar, which, like that of the tip, is
white or nearly so. The rest of the back, rump, and upper tailcoverts
brown, excessively minutely pencilled and stippled with
buffy brown ; most of the feathers more or less white shafted
and with a tiny white spot on the shaft just at the t i p ; 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 011 the tips of the longer tailcoverts,
buffy elsewhere ; each of the tail-feathers has near the
tip a small imperfect dusky metallic green occllum, surrounded
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
mc ; 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 tailcoverts
plain brown ; the iatter, 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
Polypleclrnm 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 feathers
may have been brought there ; there is no saying; I have
been able to learn nothing further since this one set of tailfeathers
was obtained, but still I think it advisable to give a
very brief description of it.
I t 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 :—General
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."