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«<A favourite resort of these alpine Pheasants is the brushwood and forests clothing the sides of the high
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Toongassee mountain, which lies between Rammee and Joseemuth, where the hazel-nut is abundant, and

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: ink-flowered Rhododendron with yellow under-surfaced leaves also abounds at the highest

where the p : :
This mountain is, I believe, about 18,000 feet high, and is only traversable

elevation of brushwood growth. ae ite top ie neat eae
during the months of August and September, when it 1s tolerably free from snow ; its top is ulated an
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studded with small hills or rounded cupola-shaped mounds, among which flowering bulbs and grass abound,
and among them the bird, doubtless, finds a supply of its favourite food. I never met with any young birds,
nor did I ever find any of the nests or eggs.” .

Captain Hutton informs us that a pair kept in confinement lived contentedly, became exceedingly tame,
and produced two eggs in June, both of which, however, were destroyed by the male; their colour was pale
rufous-brown, like those usually termed in India ‘ game hen’s eggs.’ Captain leatctom adds that the species
is peculiar to the confines of the snow on the loftier hills of the North-western eLieliaya: |

The sexes of few birds differ more widely in colour than do those of the present species, the female being
dressed in a sombre-coloured livery, while the male is adorned with the deepest tints and most conspicuous
markings, and with wattles and horns of the most brilliant hues; the eoloments al these horns and wattles
is, however, only conspicuous during the breeding season; at other periods cs the year they are greatly
contracted or shrivelled up as it were, and their colours are very much less brilliant, so much so, indeed,
as to present little or no indication of the tints they exhibit at the pairmg season; of which the following is
an accurate description.

Crown of the head, crest and ear-coverts black ; bill black; irides hazel; naked skin of the throat rich
deep bluish-black in the centre, passing into rich indigo-blue on the sides, into verditer-green at the base of
the bill, and beset with black hairs ; wattles thin, free, the upper part deep blue, the lower four-fifths rich
reddish flesh-colour, corrugated and edged with rich blue, and with four diagonal stripes of the same hue
proceeding from a central black line towards the outer edge ; orbits, a series of small fleshy wart-like papilla,
of a rich yellowish-vermilion with light blue interspaces ; the upper edge of the orbits, and the pointed
fleshy horn-like processes proceeding from their posterior upper angle, bluish verditer-green ; back and
sides of the neck and a large patch on each shoulder maroon-red ; all the upper surface and wings freckled
black and sandy-buff, with numerous spots of white encircled with black ; primaries dark brown, crossed by
irregular freckled bars of sandy-buff; on the upper tail-coverts the sandy freckles are larger and more con-
spicuous, and at the end of each feather is a large spot of white, bounded on the sides with pale chestnut-
brown, and above and below with black; tail black, freckled with sandy-buff at the base; on the centre of
the breast a number of stiff lanceolate blood-red feathers ; feathers of the under surface maroon-red, freckled
at the base with buff and brown and largely tipped with black, in the centre of which is a spot of white;
these white spots are of small size on the breast, but gradually increase until they become very large towards
the tail; the black tips and white spots, too, occupy so much of the feather, that the maroon hue only
occasionally appears; legs and feet reddish flesh-colour.

In the young male the plumage is less brilliant, the horns and wattles but little developed, the orbits are
of a dull yellow, and the lanceolate feathers of the breast are orange instead of blood-red.

The general hue of the female is light brown, mottled and barred with fine zigzag lines and spots of
blackish-brown ; the feathers of the back with a narrow central streak of buffy-white, and those of the under
surface with larger and more conspicuous markings of the same hue near the tips of the feathers ; bill and
legs paler or more horn-colour than in the male.

:
The Plate represents two males about three-fourths of the natural size, and two females in the distance
much reduced.