Space is wanting to describe the various females, or to discuss the sport that Pheasants afford; but the swift flight, the powers of foot, the polygamous and pugnacious habits, the olive-coloured eggs, and the immense numbers reared artificially, must be noticed.[[156]] P. reevesi, Reeves's Pheasant, P. versicolor, the Green Pheasant, and P. soemmerringi, the Copper Pheasant, have also been introduced into Britain, the two latter and P. torquatus into Oregon, P. colchicus into the Eastern United States; New Zealand has received both P. colchicus and P. torquatus, St. Helena and Ascension P. torquatus only–the former island as early as 1513.
Catreus wallichi of the Himalayas has a brown head with fine white-tipped crest; a grey neck, yellowish and whitish upper parts, black and buff primaries, and a rufous rump, all with black barring; the under surface is light buff with black marks, the naked orbits are red. The male has a pair of spurs and very long median rectrices; the female being brown mottled with black and buff, having a smaller crest, a shorter tail, and at times rudimentary spurs. Considerable flocks frequent the grassy forest-hills up to an altitude of eight thousand feet, lying very closely in the day-time, though running with great speed when disturbed, and flying heavily for a short way; they feed towards evening on roots, seeds, berries, grubs, and insects, reiterating the peculiar call, whence they are named Cheer. The slight nest, generally sheltered by a bush or tussock at the base of a hill, contains from nine to fourteen whitish or pale drab eggs, sometimes sparingly spotted with red-brown.
Pucrasia contains six species or local races of "Pukras" or Koklas Pheasants, with long, black, erectile ear-tufts in the male, which has a spur on each metatarsus, but no naked cheeks. P. macrolopha of the Western Himalayas has a well-developed buff crest, a greenish-black head and neck with a white patch on each side of the latter, grey upper parts and whitish flanks with black shaft-stripes, brownish wings marked with buff, chestnut under parts and median feathers of the elongated, wedge-shaped tail, and blackish lateral rectrices with white tips. The black and rufous hen has a white throat, a short crest, and no ear-tufts or spurs. P. castanea of North Afghanistan and Kafiristan has the mantle chestnut, P. nipalensis of the Central Himalayas black varied by grey and reddish; P. meyeri of South Tibet and the Upper Mekong possesses a yellow nuchal collar; P. darwini of East China has grey bases to the outer tail-feathers; P. xanthospila exhibiting both. These monogamous birds attain a somewhat higher elevation than the Cheer, and utter a loud, deep crow; but otherwise the habits are the same. The five to nine pointed eggs are buff, speckled or blotched with red-brown.
Gennaeus[[157]] has a long vaulted tail, a fine crest, naked sides to the face covered with red skin or wattles, and metatarsi with a single spur in the male. In G. albicristatus of the Western Himalayas the crest is white, the head and upper parts being black with purple and blue reflexions and white margins to the dorsal feathers, the primaries and abdomen brown, and the breast whitish. The female is reddish-brown, with delicate black markings on the grey-margined upper feathers, and shews white below and on the wing-coverts. G. leucomelanus, with blue-black crest, inhabits Nepal; G. muthura (melanotus), without white on the lower back, occurs in Sikkim and Bhutan; G. horsfieldi, with black breast, extending from East Bhutan to North Arakan and Upper Burma. All the above species have the tail black, or rarely vermiculated with white; but in G. lineatus of Burma, Siam, and Tenasserim, and the very similar G. andersoni of Upper Burma and West Yunnan, it is banded alternately with black and white, and the median rectrices are even whiter. G. edwardsi inhabits Annam. G. nycthemerus, the Silver Pheasant of South China, embroidered as a badge on mandarins' dresses, and introduced into England early in last century, has an extremely long white tail, obliquely marked with black on the lateral feathers, a purplish-black crown, crest and lower surface, white back of the neck and upper parts with crescentic black lines on the latter, and naked red face. G. swinhoii of Formosa is easily distinguished from its allies by the bronzy-crimson scapulars, white crest, upper back, and median rectrices; the remaining plumage being bluish- or purplish-black with a glossy dark green band upon the wing. The female is mottled with rufous, black, and buff, and has a short crest, while that sex of the Silver Pheasant is browner, and exhibits white on the outer tail-feathers. These "Kalleges"–a name strictly applicable to the first four species only–frequent thin forests in low valleys, and are but slightly gregarious; they perch on trees, and fly short distances when flushed; the note is a shrill crow, a whistling chuckle or a "chirrup;" the food is as usual in Pheasants. The pugnacious male is said to strut with outspread tail, and to drum with his wings while courting; the nest, formed of dry herbage in a depression of the soil, contains from nine to fourteen creamy or reddish-buff eggs.
The "Eared" or Snow-Pheasants (Crossoptilon) have a vaulted tail with decomposed webs to the long decurved median feathers, fine white ear-tufts, and lax hairy plumage, shorter and curled on the crown. The naked papillose cheeks and the metatarsi are red, with a pair of stout spurs on the latter in the male. C. tibetanum of West China and East Tibet is white, with black crown, dark brown remiges, and greenish- or purplish-black rectrices. C. leucurum of East Tibet has the tail white with blue-black tip, as has C. manchuricum of Manchuria and North China, in which the mantle, nape, and breast are blackish-brown, with a faint white band between the ear-coverts, found also in C. auritum of West China and Koko-Nor, and well defined in C. harmani of Tibet. The last two have the nape, back, and under parts grey-blue. These elegant birds haunt lofty mountain-woods until cold weather comes on; they are comparatively tame, feed on leaves, shoots, roots, fruit, worms, and insects, and lay–at least in the case of C. manchuricum–from twelve to sixteen drab eggs. The plumes are worn by Tartar and Chinese warriors.
Lobiophasis bulweri of Borneo is a splendid bird with maroon nuchal collar and chest, brown remiges, white tail, and black plumage elsewhere with blue margins to most of the feathers. The stiff spine-pointed rectrices number twenty-eight in the hen and no less than thirty-two in the cock, the whole tail being compressed and the median plumes decurved; in the male the skin of the naked front of the head is blue, as are two caruncles present behind the ears, two smaller processes on the lores, and two wattles at the gape. The rufous, buff, and black female has only the sides of the face bare, with diminutive lateral wattles on the throat. This species skulks in the jungles, and prefers running to flying, having many of the habits of a fowl, though ranging up to two thousand feet; the eggs are stone-coloured.
The magnificent Firebacks (Lophura) have, so far as is known, similar habits to the members of Gennaeus, though they are stronger on the wing, and utter mellower notes in their forest retreats; the tail is vaulted, the cheeks exhibit patches of rugose blue skin–red in L. diardi–while the male has a pair of spurs and an erect crest with bare-shafted plumes. L. nobilis of Borneo is purplish-blue with fiery chestnut rump-region, golden lower breast, black head, throat, and wings, the four median rectrices being entirely buff and the lateral black with buff markings; L. vieilloti of Siam, the Malay Peninsula, and Sumatra has the lower breast black, and the two middle rectrices white, L. ignita of China differing in its chestnut-spotted flanks; L. diardi (praelata) of Siam, Cambodia, and Cochin China has a grey and black mantle, neck, and breast, a golden buff lower back, and crimson-tipped rump-feathers. The females have the mantle red-brown or chestnut, and outer rectrices of the latter colour in L. vieilloti, but black in L. nobilis; in L. diardi the black wing-coverts have wide buff bars. This sex of L. ignita seems to be unknown. Acomus has naked cheeks, but no crest or wattles; the tail is vaulted, and a pair of spurs is found in both sexes. A. erythrophthalmus of the southern Malay Peninsula and Sumatra is chiefly purplish- or bluish-black with fiery golden lower back, rich buff tail, and white wing-markings; A. pyronotus of Borneo exhibits white shaft-stripes on the breast; A. inornatus of West Sumatra, of which the male only has been discovered, has black plumage margined with dark blue-green, therein somewhat resembling the hens of its congeners, which are black glossed with purplish-blue. In habits this genus apparently resembles Lophura.
Lophophorus contains four gorgeous species of almost unsurpassable brilliancy, among which the Monal, constantly misnamed the Impeyan Pheasant, is best known. The tail is rounded, each metatarsus is provided with a spur in the male, and bare blue skin surrounds the eye. The Himalayan Monal (L. refulgens) has a crest like that of the Peacock, uniform in colour with the purplish-green head; the neck is purple, coppery, and green, the mantle golden-green, the lower back white, and the tail chestnut; the wing- and tail-coverts being green or purple with blue and green reflexions, the under parts black, and the remiges dusky. Its habits differ somewhat from those of other Pheasants, a preference being shown for grassy hill-forests not far from the snow-line; it roosts in trees, though generally found on the ground during the day, and is not very wild, trusting to its speed of foot in open spots, but readily taking to wing in the woodlands. The flight is rapid and powerful, while the male is said to soar without perceptible movement of the pinions; the usual cry is a loud melancholy whistle. The long stout beak serves to dig up roots for food; but grain, fruit, grass, and insect-larvae are also eaten. The nest, or sheltered unlined excavation in the soil, contains from four to six oval cream-coloured eggs, closely spotted or blotched with reddish-brown. The cocks are reported to be non-pugnacious, and the hens semi-gregarious while breeding. L. impeyanus of South Kashmir, the true Impeyan Pheasant, differs in its golden-green lower back and under parts; L. l'huysi of Sze-chuen and Koko-Nor has an ordinary crest, and white spots on the blue, green, and black tail; L. sclateri of North-East Assam has a curly crown with no crest, and white-tipped rectrices; the two latter forms being black beneath and white on the lower back. The slightly-crested females are black, buff, and white; the lower back is black and buff in L. refulgens, whitish mottled with brown in L. sclateri, and white in L. l'huysi.
Of Tragopan (Ceriornis) there are five species, remarkable for the fleshy blue horn above each eye and the large gular wattle in the male, who erects the former and inflates the latter when courting. The fore-part of the head and throat are naked or merely hairy, while the crested cock-bird possesses a pair of short spurs, rarely present in his mate. C. satyrus, the Horned Pheasant of the Central and Eastern Himalayas, has the crown and throat black, the occiput, neck, and lower parts orange-red with stiff chest-plumes, the back brown, the remiges and rectrices black and buff. Most of the body-feathers exhibit black-margined white spots, and the outer wing-coverts additional red marks; while the wattle is orange barred with blue. C. melanocephalus of the Western Himalayas has a longer crest tipped with red, none of that colour on the occiput, the breast black and red, and a purple wattle with flesh-coloured sides, blue margin and spots. C. temmincki of Central and South-West China has the crest and under parts red, the wattle blue barred marginally with red, and the characteristic spots grey without black rings. C. blythi of North-East Assam and Manipur has the wattle yellow tinged with blue, and a plain grey breast; whereas C. caboti of South-East China has the latter region buff. The hens are black and buff with whitish spots. These shy solitary birds occupy the higher hill-forests, being apparently monogamous, though found in small companies at times; they run slowly, take refuge in trees, and fly with a whirring sound. They roost aloft, but feed constantly upon the ground, eating grubs, insects, roots, flowers, fruits, and especially seeds or herbage; the note is a deep monotonous "bellowing" or "wailing sound." The fleshy excrescences are said to be chiefly developed in the breeding season, when the male, who possibly assists in incubation, struts before his consort like a Turkey. A nest is sometimes formed of twigs, grass, and feathers to contain the seven or eight whitish eggs with dull lilac spots or red freckles. Tragopans are mistakenly termed "Argus" by sportsmen in India.
