Sub-fam. 2. Meleagrinae.–Of the Turkeys,[[153]] there are only two species, Meleagris gallipavo and M. ocellata. The former has three races–distinguished by the tail and its upper coverts being tipped with white, buff, and chestnut respectively–the united range extending from Southern Canada to Mexico through the Eastern and South-Western States. They are coppery-bronze, with purplish-green and golden sheen and black markings; the remiges being brown barred with white, and the tail black and brown with broad dark sub-terminal band. The reddish head and neck are nearly bare, shewing wrinkled warty skin and a pendent erectile process on the forehead; a bunch of long black bristles decorates the chest of the male, which has a stout spur on each metatarsus. The bill and feet are red. M. ocellata of Yucatan, British Honduras, and Guatemala, has black plumage, tipped with brassy-green, and fringed with greenish-copper, that becomes redder below; the rump region is steel-blue, and brilliant ocelli of green-blue margined with copper mark the ends of the greyish rectrices and their coverts. The frontal caruncle and the head are blue, with red tip and excrescences respectively, while the pectoral tuft is absent.
The wild Turkey is wary and extremely quick of foot, spending the day chiefly upon the ground and roosting high in the trees; it frequents wooded country, and feeds upon plants, seeds, nuts and other fruits, with lizards and insects. In spring the males fight viciously, and show off before the assembled hens; strutting around with erect, outspread tails and drooping wings, while uttering puffing and gobbling noises. Each cock having secured a mate or two, breeding takes place, after which the sexes separate, but combine again in autumn and wander widely in search of food. A hole, scraped under some log or tuft of herbage, and lined with dry leaves, receives the yellowish-white eggs with red-brown spots; the number varying from ten to eighteen, or even more if several hens co-operate.
Sub-fam. 3. Phasianinae.–Among these a detailed description is unnecessary of the fine blue, green, and rufous plumage of the Peacock (Pavo cristatus), or of the green, purple, copper, and gold ocelli on its elongated train of erectile tail-coverts; but other striking points are the bare-shafted crest and naked white face; while the comparatively dull-coloured Pea-hen lacks the train of the male and the spur on each metatarsus. In the wild state these birds are shy, and run particularly fast, while they occasionally fly in small flocks; they inhabit the hill-forests or ravines near water-courses in India and Ceylon, roosting in large trees, making a slight nest on the ground, ruined buildings, or more rarely branches, and laying from four to about ten yellowish or reddish eggs, sometimes faintly spotted with rufous. The cry is a harsh mewing squeal, or a "cok-cok-cok" when flushed; the food resembles that of the Turkey, but is at times varied by fish or flesh; and, as in that bird, the males are said to dance or strut around when courting, each securing three or four consorts. Peafowl are supposed to indicate the proximity of tigers, and are sacred to various Indian castes, while foolish superstition considers the eyed feathers unlucky! Introduced to England at some very early date, they were formerly thought a great delicacy for the table. P. nigripennis, the "Japanned Peacock," is a species, or perhaps variety, with deep blue wing-coverts and other slighter differences, the female being almost entirely greyish-white; P. muticus, a valid species from the Indo-Chinese countries and Java, is distinguished by the golden-green neck and chest and the blue and yellow skin of the face; the crest feathers being here fully webbed.
Argusianus argus, the Argus Pheasant, has a short black crest; black, rufous, and buff plumage with white barring on the nape and tail-coverts; and enormously developed secondaries and median rectrices, covered respectively with large reddish-yellow and small white ocelli, which are margined with black; the naked cheeks and throat are blue, the bill is bluish-white, the feet are red. It inhabits the forests of the Indo-Malay mainland and Sumatra, the cock being said only to meet the hens occasionally, and to reserve an open spot for courting purposes, where he shows himself off by dancing before them with the tail and secondaries expanded into a large fan. This bird flies little, but runs with celerity, having a loud cry, feeding on vegetable matter and insects, nesting like the Pea-fowl, and laying similar eggs. A. grayi of Borneo shows white on the mantle and much red on the breast, A. bipunctatus is only known from an imperfect primary. The females lack the ocelli and elongated tail. A. (Rheinardtius) ocellatus, of the Tonkin highlands, is brown with reddish markings and minute white dots; it has a hairy occipital crest, and exhibits fine red spots, with black white-eyed central rings, on the very long median rectrices and their upper coverts.
In Polyplectron (Peacock-Pheasant) the male has two or even three spurs on the metatarsus. P. chinquis of the Indo-Chinese countries is brown, with whitish dots above and mottlings below; the head is black and white with naked yellowish sides; the upper plumage is adorned with large, round, metallic, purple-green ocelli, ringed successively with black, brown, and buff, of which the tail and its upper-coverts exhibit one on each web. P. germaini of Cochin China has close-set light brown specks above, and a red face; P. bicalcaratum of the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra has the latter similarly coloured, with black and buff upper surface, a narrow purplish crest, and lateral rectrices with an "eye" only on the outer web; P. schleiermacheri of Borneo has the crest curled forward, and blackish under parts with a white median band; whereas P. nehrkornae of Paláwan, and the doubtfully distinct P. napoleonis, are entirely black below. As regards the duller females, P. chinquis and P. germaini have obscure ocelli on both webs of the lateral tail-feathers, the other species on the outer web only; moreover, P. chinquis, P. schleiermacheri, and P. nehrkornae have none on the tail-coverts, the latter lacking the black blotches on the mantle found in P. bicalcaratum and P. schleiermacheri. P. (Chalcurus) inocellatus of Sumatra is brown and buff, with purple and black tints on the tail. Little is known of the habits, except in P. chinquis, which is apparently monogamous, and frequents thick hill-forests up to an altitude of five thousand feet. It feeds like the Peafowl, has a fine whistling call varied by a soft cluck, and will take refuge in trees, though preferring to escape on foot. The cock carries his outspread tail on one side, while the hen uses hers to shelter the young. The fairly substantial nest of twigs and leaves, usually containing two brownish eggs, is placed on the ground.
Of the four species of Gallus, G. ferrugineus (bankiva), the Red Jungle-fowl–Bhund Moorg of the natives of India–shewing much resemblance to the "Black-breasted Game" breed, is the origin of our domestic stock.[[154]] It has a vaulted tail with long drooping median feathers, a serrated red comb, naked red face and throat, with a wattle on each side of the latter, a spur on each metatarsus, and ear-lappets, which are whitish in Indian examples, but red in Burmese and Malay. The crown and the hackles of the mantle and rump are orange-red, the back is chiefly purplish-red, and the wings, tail, and under parts are glossy greenish-black, with yellowish outer margins to the primaries and brownish to the secondaries. Between June and September the hackles and long tail plumes are replaced by short black feathers. The hen has little comb, no wattles, spurs, or elongated rectrices; the crown is reddish and the mantle yellowish, both with black stripes; the wing- and tail-quills are brown and rufous; the remaining plumage being reddish-brown, deeper on the fore-neck and brighter on the chest, with black mottling above. This Jungle-fowl ranges from North-Eastern and Central India to Hainan, and from Sumatra to the Philippines, Celebes, and Timor; frequenting thickets and forests up to five thousand feet, but often flocking to cultivated country, where it feeds upon leaves, seeds, insects, and especially grain. Pugnacious towards its kin[[155]] it is timid with man, running with great speed or taking refuge in trees; the flight consists of alternate periods of flapping and sailing, while the cluck of the hen and the crow of the cock resemble those of domestic fowls, though the latter is less prolonged. The nest is a hole lined with leaves, grass, or plant-stems, containing from seven to twelve buff eggs; polygamy being apparently rare. G. sonnerati, the Grey Jungle-fowl of Southern, Central, and Western India, is distinguishable by the dilated shafts of the neck-hackles, with their wax-like yellow tips or spangles; G. lafayettii (stanleyi) of Ceylon by the yellow comb with red margin, and the red breast. The former utters a broken crow, the latter a double note, the eggs in both cases being spotted, and occasionally whitish in ground-colour. G. varius of Java, Lombok, and Flores, is greener, with truncated neck-feathers, an unserrated comb, and a single median wattle of red, yellow, and blue-green. The hens of G. sonnerati and G. lafayettii have white breast-plumage, barred and fringed with black, the former shewing black mottlings instead of bars on the secondaries; that of G. varius has a buff breast and a blackish back. In these three species crosses with domestic fowls are said to be usually sterile.
Chrysolophus pictus, the brilliant Golden Pheasant, has the crown and full recumbent hair-like crest golden, the fine erectile cape of truncated nape-plumes orange with blue-black bars, the mantle dark green and purple, the rump golden, the primaries brownish, the secondaries purplish with chestnut and black coverts, the larger tail-coverts and the vaulted tail with its two very long median rectrices black, with brown spots or stripes, the scapulars and under parts scarlet, and the cheeks and throat rufous. There are generally two spurs on each metatarsus, and the bare orbits are yellowish. The female is brown, relieved by black and buff, and has a shorter tail, no crest or cape. This bird, difficult to naturalize in Britain, but easily domesticated, inhabits wooded mountains in South and West China and East Tibet, meeting in the last two countries the equally beautiful Lady Amherst's Pheasant (C. amherstiae), which has dark green crown, mantle, throat, and chest, blood-red crest, white cape with blue-black bars, black and buff rump, glossy green and brown wings, white breast and abdomen, and black and white tail with scarlet and orange tips to the coverts. The orbits are blue in both sexes, the female being otherwise as in C. pictus.
The original Pheasant of Britain–probably introduced by the Romans–was Phasianus colchicus, ranging from the Caspian to South-East Europe; but the Ring-necked species (P. torquatus) of Manchuria, East Mongolia, Corea, Tsu-sima, and Eastern China, imported towards the end of last century, has interbred with it so freely that typical examples are now exceptional. The latter form has a white collar and slaty lower back with dark green barring; while the former has the rump feathers buff, with black mottlings and purplish-red tips. The females, hardly separable from one another, lack the red face-wattles, the long ear-tufts, and the pair of spurs of the male. The above-mentioned colour of the lower back and the comparatively broad black basal tail-bands, are the distinguishing points of a section, which comprises P. torquatus, P. elegans of West China, P. vlangali of Tsaidam, P. strauchi of Kansu, P. decollatus of Western and Central China, P. satscheunensis of Sa-tscheu, P. formosanus of Formosa, and P. versicolor of Japan. Another section, more akin to P. colchicus, contains P. tarimensis and P. zerafshanicus of the Tarim and Zerafshan Valleys, P. persicus of Persia and Transcaspia, P. principalis of North-East Persia and North-West Afghanistan, P. shawi of East Turkestan, P. chrysomelas of the Amu-Darya, and P. mongolicus, extending from the Syr-Daria to Mongolia. All these races have the crown greenish, and differ chiefly in the colour of the scapulars, breast, rump, and abdomen; a white collar occurring in P. torquatus, P. mongolicus, P. satscheunensis, and P. formosanus, while P. versicolor is green below. Where two forms meet hybrids are not uncommon. In P. soemmerringi of Japan, P. ellioti of South-East China, and P. humiae of Manipur and Upper Burma the crown is red-brown, the first species having the lower back maroon with gold reflexions, the two others a black and white rump, with white and chestnut belly respectively. P. reevesi of North and West China has the crown white encircled by black, the nape and throat white with a subjacent black collar, the remaining upper parts yellowish-red and black, with white and rufous on the wings, the breast black, white, and chestnut, the abdomen black, the tail is extremely long.
Fig. 46.–Pheasant. Phasianus colchicus. × ⅐.