PUCRASIA DARWIN Ie Swinhoe.
Darwin’s Pucras Pheasant.

Pucrasia Darwini, Swinhoe, P. Z.5., 1872, p. 552.—Elliot, Monogr. Phasianide, i. pl. xxx. (bis).

 

“Tus new species of Pheasant,” says Mr. Elliot, ‘‘ appears to represent, on the eastern Chinese ranges,
the buff-spotted Pucras of the more western portion of that mighty empire: and this is somewhat strange ;
for, being intermediate in plumage between P. vanthospila and P. macrolopha of India, we should naturally
have looked for it in a region lying between those inhabited by the species just mentioned.”

When describing the Calophasis Elhoti from the mountains behind Ningpo, Mr. Swinhoe gives the
following note on the present bird :—“ The same mountains have also yielded a Pucras Pheasant remarkable
for the absence of the golden neck-spot which adorns the Pucrasia xanthospila of Northern and Western
China (Mantchuria to Szechuen). It is of the same model as the other two closely allied species, P.
macrolopha of the Himalayas and the above-mentioned, but differs sufficiently from either to be recognized
as a third race of this curious type.” ;

I give in detail the very careful description which Mr. Swinhoe adds respecting it :—

‘¢ Male.—Head coloured as in the other two, but the bronze encroaching more on the crown; central
occipital crest yellowish brown, with central yellowish streaks; lower eyelid covered with minute pure
white feathers ; white spot on side of nape as usual. Feathers of the hind neck white, delicately shaded
over, and with four black streaks converging to tip; greyer on the back and rump, the lines opening into
mottling; some of those covering the ramp having a V-mark of black with pale yellowish centre and
light chestnut shading. The long uropygials and central tail-feathers greyish white, with a broad margin
of chestnut, flanked inwardly with black and outwardly with narrow white. Rectrices pale French or
Kestrel grey, bordered along the sides with black, edged with grey, and barred at the end with black
conspicuously tipped with white; in the outer feathers the black border is confluent with the bar, in the
more central it is broken by the grey extending across ; all have more or less black about the basal two
thirds of the stem. The two central tail-feathers coloured like the tail-coverts, but clearer and brighter.
Median feathers of the underparts from the neck downwards deep chestnut as usual, lighter and dingier
on the abdomen; lateral feathers reddish buff, with four converging black streaks, the two inner ones
breaking up into mottling; tibial and latero-abdominal with outer streak very broad. Under tail-coverts
black, marked more or less with deep chestnut, and tipped with a conspicuous white spot. Scapulars and
wing-coverts varying in depth of chestnut tint, and in breadth of black limes; many of the former and
secondary coverts black, with yellowish central streak and margined with chestnut. Primary quills brown,
margined with buff ; secondaries more mottled, with the edging more chestnut; tertiaries mottled and
patched with buff, chestnut, and black, with yellowish central streak ; axillaries and under wing-coverts
mottled minutely, and the former streaked with light black.

“¢ Compared with a specimen of P. xanthospila from Pekin, occipital crest much darker, some of the
feathers with a central yellow streak ; cuneate feathers of the neck much shorter, without a tinge of yellow,
those of the back and rump much broader; sides of the body washed with a warm sienna instead of lemon-
white, and more narrowly streaked with black; rump-feathers shorter and broader, mottled instead of
streaked with black ; a single line of black feathers running down the middle of the rump, margined with
grey, and patched in the centre with chestnut with a pale streak running through; of a larger size, with
larger legs and feet ; wings and tail differ in detail of colour and markings.

‘“« Fresh male shot about the middle of December.—Length 24 inches; wing 9°25; tail 9-5, consisting of

fourteen rectrices and two centrals, which in appearance are but a continuation of the tail-coverts advancing
gradatim to cover the tail; tarse 3-4; middle toe and claw 2°9. Bill black ; iris deep brown; legs and
toes deep blackish grey. Crop full of bamboo-leaves, with a leaf or two of other trees and a few berries.
« Fresh female shot in beginning of January 1872.—Entire length 19°25 inches; wing 8; tail6; tarse 2-9,
with a tubercle on the inner side towards its backward edge, 0°6 above hind toe; middle toe and claw 2:5.
Bill blackish brown on whole of upper mandible and tip of lower, bluish grey on rest of latter; inside of
mouth yellowish flesh-colour, yellower on the tongue, which is broadly sagittate ; skin round eye deep
purplish brown ; lower eyelid covered with minute white feathers ; legs and claws light leaden.”

The species is represented in the Plate by a male and female, rather under the natural size.

 

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