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Calophasis burmannicus, Oates.

 

MALE :—The feathers of the back and rump black broadly margined with white.

FEMALE :—Undistinguishable from the female Mrs. Hume's Barred-backed Pheasant.

Vernacular Name -.— Yit, Burmese.

The Burmese Barred-backed Pheasant is allied to, but quite distinct from, the preceding species. So far as is known, the present species occurs only on the hills which lie partly in Burma and partly in the Shan States, from the Ruby-Mines district down to Kalaw in the Thamakan State. It is probable that this species occurs farther east, at Toungyi, for Mr. A. H. Hildebrand informs me that he once met with a Pheasant at that place which resembled in shape the I described this new species in the Ibis, 1898, p. 124. English Pheasant, but he was unable to get it.

The British Museum has two pairs of this Pheasant in its collection of birds. One pair was presented by Mr. F. Atlay, who procured both birds in the Ruby-Mines district, and another pair was presented by Major G. Rippon, who, writing of the birds of Kalaw, Southern Shan States, remarks:—" I obtained only one male and one female of this handsome Pheasant. The female was shot after a long run up the side of a hill. When first seen she was picking about in a small valley between two pine-clad slopes. The male was got more easily in a rocky valley with a good deal of undergrowth, chiefly bamboo. A man was sent round towards the head of the valley with orders to walk slowly down towards me. The Pheasant, which had been seen to go into a thick clump, presently walked out, and was immediately shot. The skins of both were preserved."

The Burmese Barred-backed Pheasant differs from Mrs. Hume's Barred-backed Pheasant in the following particulars. I put these differences side by side for the sake of clearness ;—

Calophasis humice, Hume.

MALE :—The feathers of the back and rump blue narrowly margined with white.

FEMALE :—All the tail-feathers, except the middle pair, chestnut tipped with a double band of black and white.

Vernacular Name : —Loi-nin-koi, Manipur.

This lovely species was discovered by Mr. Hume in Manipur in 1881. The only two birds of this species which he was fortunate enough to obtain in that country were brought in to him by natives, and consequently Mr. Hume acquired no personal knowledge of the habits of this Pheasant. What little he was able to learn about this bird from the natives is summed up in the following note :—" According to the accounts of my savages these birds live in dense hill forests at elevations of from 2500 feet (the height of the lower end of the Manipur plain, or, as it is miscalled, valley) to fully 5000 feet. They prefer the neighbourhood of streams and are neither rare nor shy. They extend right through the Kamhow territory into Eastern Looshai and North-west Independent Burmah.'

"That they occasionally stray up the Jhiri valley well into Manipur is probable, and they may occur not only where we procured them, in the extreme south of that state, but also probably in the southern portion of its eastern hills."

Of a live bird which he kept for a few days until it was accidentally killed, Mr. Hume observes :—" The live bird, though a full-grown cock, became perfectly tame in a few days, and a great favourite in the camp. It would eat bread, boiled rice, winged white-ants, moths, taking them gingerly out of our hands."

Shortly after Mr. Hume discovered this Pheasant, Colonel Godwin-Austen's collectors obtained specimens of it on the Shiroifurar Peak in Manipur at 8000 feet.

In the male the crown, back of the head and the ears are brown, the feathers at the sides of the crown with white bases which form an imperfect band. The throat, the neck all round, the upper mantle and the upper breast are glossy bluish black, each feather with a triangular black velvet spot. The lower mantle and lower breast are rich maroon with similar black spots. The back and rump are pale blue, each feather with a narrow white fringe. The closed wings are maroon with two broad white bands and a broader intermediate bluish-black band. The first ten quills of the wing are dark brown on the inner web, rufous on the outer; all the other quills of the wing tipped with a double bar, the first of which is black and the other or terminal portion white. The lower plumage below the breast is rich maroon and the feathers under the tail are black. The two outer tail-feathers are black mottled with grey at their base; the next pair is black mottled with grey and with a broad black tip; the next four pairs are grey barred with black; the middle pair is grey with eight bars, the first four of which are black followed by a more or less indistinct band of chestnut, and the last four are more or less chestnut with a median narrow black band.

The general colour of the female is brown; the upper plumage much blotched with black and each feather of the mantle with a triangular white mark ; the feathers of the lower plumage fringed paler. The first ten quills of the wing are barred with buff on the outer web. The middle tail-feathers are rufous, freckled and barred with black; the others are chestnut, tipped with a double band, the first portion of which is black and the terminal white.

Length of male about 33; wing 8 1/2; tail 21 ; legs brown; irides orange ; bill greenish. Length of female about 22 ; wing 8; tail about 7 1/2. The facial skin in both sexes is crimson.

Mrs. Hume's Pheasant.

Callophasis humiae, Hume, S. F. ix, p. 461 (1881); xi, p. 302. Phasianus huniiae, Godwin-Austen, P. Z. 8. 1882, p. 715, pl. Ii; W. Sclater, Ibis, 1891, p. 152; Ogilvie Grant, Vat. B. M. xxii, p. 335; Oates, Jour. Bom. N. H. Soc. x, p. 112.

Loe-nin-koi, Manipur.

Coloration. Male. Crown brown, tinged with olive and with traces of green metallic gloss ; chin dark brown ; neck all round, upper back, and upper breast black, the feathers near their edges glossed with steely blue, the velvety-black centres only showing slightly ; smaller wing-coverts and interscapulars copper-coloured, shot with glowing fiery red; a broad band of white feathers with black tips and bases across each wing and the scapulars; parallel to this is a black band, glossed with bronze-green, formed by the tips of the chestnut median coverts; greater coverts chestnut, tipped with white, forming a second white band; quills dark brown, edged outside with chestnut, which grows broader on the secondaries and tertiaries, each of which has a subterminal black bar and white or buff tip; lower back and rump black with metallic purplish gloss, each feather fringed with white; upper tail-coverts and tail grey, the latter with bars, rather far apart, of black more or less mixed with chestnut, the outer feathers, beginning with about the third pair from the middle, having a subterminal black band that grows broader on each pair, until on the outermost pair it nearly covers the feathers; lower parts from middle of breast to vent chestnut, some breast-feathers with a black crescentic subterminal spot and both breast- and flank-feathers fringed with fiery red in some lights; vent and lower tail-coverts black with a greenish gloss.

Female. General colour greyish brown, blotched with black and mottled with pale sandy; crown rufous, with dark brown centres to the feathers ; hind neck and upper back blotched with black, the feathers with irregular arrowhead-shaped white shaft-spots; lower back and rump speckled and mixed with black and pale rufous ; inner scapulars mostly black, and some large black blotches on the wing-coverts, some of which have pale shafts, and the median and greater coverts whitish tips; primaries blackish brown slightly speckled rufous, with white spots on the outer webs and mottled tips : secondaries black, mottled and banded with brown and tipped with rufous ; middle tail-feathers brown, speckled black, with black and whitish cross-bands; outer tail-feathers chestnut, with imperfect black bars, each with a subterminal black band and white tip ; lower parts pale brownish rufous, with whitish bars and edges to feathers of the breast, upper abdomen, and flanks ; lower abdomen whity brown ; under tail-coverts black, white, and chestnut mixed.

Rectrices 16. Bill of male greenish horny ; naked sides of face intense crimson ; irides orange ; legs and feet pale drab (Hume).

Length of a male 33 ; tail 20.5 ; wing 8.7; tarsus 2.75 ; bill from gape 13. Females smaller : wing 8.25 ; tail 7 ; tarsus 2.3.

Distribution. Hill-forests of Manipur, both north and south of the valley, and a considerable area in Upper Burma, specimens having been obtained by Oates near the Ruby Mines east of the Irrawaddy, and the occurrence of the species ascertained at Tounggyi in the southern Shan States. Only a very few skins of this species have hitherto been collected.

The Burmese Barred-backed Pheasant.

Yit, Burma.

Mantle maroon. Rump black, each feather broadly margined white. Wing bar imperfect, mixed chestnut. Mid-tail and next four pairs distinctly barred chestnut. (O. 63.)

Also C. ellioti. Elliot's Pheasant from S.E. China. Male 32". Sides of neck and belly white. Female 20". Throat and foreneck black. Eggs (1.7 x 1.3) creamy buff. (O.G. ii. 41.)

Note.— In Gennaeus the tail is longer than the wing in males, and as long as the wing in females.

Mrs. Hume's Barred-backed Pheasant.
 

Loi-nin-koi, Manipur.
 

Male 33". Female 22". Bill greenish. Legs drab.— Male: Upper mantle and upper breast glossy blue-black, each feather with triangular black velvet spot. Lower mantle and lower breast maroon with similar spots. Back and rump pale blue, narrowly fringed white. Closed wing maroon with broad blue-black band with white band on either side. Mid-tail grey, barred black and chestnut.— Female : Brown blotched with black, each feather of mantle with triangular white mark.

Wing-bar imperfect, mixed chestnut. Mid-tail and next four pairs barred chest-nut. Prom Manipur and Upper Burma. (B. 1331. O. 62.)

Galophasis humiae.
 

Loe-nin-koi, Manipur.

Anyone coming across this pheasant is likely at once to notice its resemblance to our familiar species at home, to which, indeed, it is nearly allied, though not nearly so closely as is Stone's pheasant. It may be distinguished from that bird by the two white bars on the wings and by the white edgings to the feathers of the lower back, which in some specimens conceal the dark bases, so that these would show a conspicuous white patch in that region which would be very noticeable when the bird was on the wing.

Such white-backed specimens are to be found in the Ruby Mines district in Burma, and some writers consider them as a distinguishable species, named Galophasis burmanicus. The typical form with the lower back having a variegated colouring of steel-blue with white feather-borders is the Manipur bird, and it is this that Hume discovered and named after his wife— a way of commemorating oneself (by giving the lady's married surname instead of her Christian name), which is, unfortunately, not unique in the annals of descriptive ornithology. This was in 1881, and Hume could only get two specimens, both of them males ; but though few have since come to hand, the female is now known, and the Shan States, as well as Burma, have been added to the range of the species.

The hen, in her brown mottled plumage, has nothing distinctive about her appearance but the chestnut white-tipped outer tail-feathers, and fortunately these are just what would be conspicuous in flight; her tail is shorter than that of an English hen pheasant, though the cock's is quite up to the usual cock-pheasant's standard of length, but grey in ground colour instead of the olive-brown seen in the home cock-pheasant's tail.

In Manipur these birds are found inhabiting hill-forests, and range from 2,500 to 8,000 feet; they extend, according to Hume, "right through the Kamhow territory into Eastern Looshai, and North-west Independent Burma."

The Burmese and Shan States race, which was described by Oates as distinct in 1898, seems to be similar in habits, also frequenting wooded hills. Although I was the first to draw attention to the distinction between the two races, I did not, and do not now, consider them as distinct species, the characters being liable to variation; and I have always thought that the describing of a new species is an act requiring justification, not one to be proud of.

"As an example of the futility of species-splitting, I may men­tion that two male specimens of this pheasant in the Indian Museum, obtained respectively by Lieutenant H. H. Turner in the Chin Hills, and by Lieutenant H. Wood in Upper Burma, agreed with the Manipur form in having the rump blue with narrow white edgings. As Hume's birds were trapped, and few have seen the species wild, Lieutenant Turner's notes are worth quoting ; they appeared in the Journal of the Asiatic Society for 1900. He says : "I had left my camp, which was pitched about six miles from Fort White, on the evening of March 6 . . . and was returning along the road (the Fort White— Kalemyo road), when glancing down the khud I saw something grey disappearing in the long grass just below me. I immediately started to go after it, when I saw what appeared to me a light blue streak just disappearing. I immediately fired, but it was with faint hopes that I walked up to the spot, as not only did I think the bird had disappeared before I shot, but I had just at the moment of shooting slipped. I was, therefore, very much delighted when I saw the blue streak tumbling down the khud below me. I immediately went after him and secured him ; as I was descending the original grey bird, which was evidently the female, got up and flew a short distance. I walked her up, and my dog again put her up ; unfortunately, owing to the thick jungle, I was unable to get a shot. Walking on, however, I put up another, whether a cock or hen I could not say, as it was already dusk. I fired, but the bird flew away, and although I believe it dropped, I could not find it. These birds, when I saw them, were feeding among the dry leaves which littered the ground.

"The next evening I tried the upper side of the road and put up several (four at least) of these same birds out of some long grass on a steep hillside. I only managed to get one long shot, which was not successful. I again tried the next morning, and was successful in bagging another ; my dog put it up on our right, and flying very low through the bushes it crossed just in front of me. . . . The hill on which I obtained these specimens was between 4,000 and 5,000 feet high."

The Burmese Barred-back Pheasant.

Callophasis burmanicus Oates, Ibis, 1898, p. 124 (Ruby Mines). Phasianus humiae. Blanf. & Oates, iv, p. 80 (part.).

Vernacular names. Tit (Burma), Wuri (Kachin).

Description. - Adult male. Similar to the preceding bird but with the steel-blue of the upper parts confined to the extreme upper back and much more sharply defined from the copper-coloured mantle ; the rump is black and white instead of blue and white and the gloss, if present at ail, is a much deeper blue than in Mrs. Hume's Pheasant; the white fringes also are broader.

Colours of soft parts. The same as in S. h. humiae.

Measurements. Wing 215 to 236 mm.

Female not distinguishable from that of the preceding bird. Wing 195 to 210 mm.

Distribution. Northern Burma East of the Irawaddy, Shan States and Yunnan. It has been found South of Taungyi, Port Stedman and Loimai, and a pheasant, probably this, has been seen in the Bree country.

Nidification. Unknown.

Habits. Similar to those of the last bird. Rather gregarious, associating in small flocks, perhaps family-parties, in the broken and rocky hill-country between 4,000 and 9,000 feet.

Mrs. Hume's Pheasant.

Callophasis humiae Hume, Str. Feath., ix, p. 461 (1881) (Manipur). Phasianus humiae. Blanf. & Oates, iv, pp, 80, 480 (part.).

Vernacular names. Yit (Burm.); Wuri (Kachin) ; Loe-nin-koi (Manipur).

Description. - Adult male. Crown brown tinged with olive, darker all round the bare orbital skin and faintly glossed with green; chin and upper throat black; upper breast and upper back deep velvet-black with broad edges of deep steel-blue ; lower back and rump steel-blue, paler than the back and each feather edged with white and with a broad white bar bordered with black; upper tail-coverts grey, faintly vermiculated with white and with an obsolete broken black bar across the centre ; tail vermiculated grey, with black bars more or less mottled with chestnut on the central pair of feathers; four outer pairs with a broad subterminal bar of chestnut and the two, or three, outermost pairs mottled with white at the tips ; lesser and median wing-coverts like the back, the former with a broad band of white, narrowly edged with steel-blue and with bases of glossy blue-black, the latter with a black band glossed with steel-blue ; greater coverts deep chestnut, edged white and sub-edged white near the quills; primaries brown edged chestnut; secondaries chestnut, the innermost tipped white and sub-tipped black ; lower breast like the back, changing to deep bright chestnut on the abdomen and flanks ; thighs and centre of the abdomen mottled brown and chestnut; under tail-coverts black with a faint blue-green gloss.

Colours of soft parts. Iris brown to orange ; orbital skin deep crimson; bill greenish-horny, tipped paler and darker on base and culmen; legs and feet delicate drab.

Measurements. Wing 206 to 224 mm.; tail 401 to 535 mm.; tarsus 58 to 66 mm.; culmen 25.5 to 29 mm.; spur 8.3 to 17.7 mm. Weight 2 lb. 6 oz.

Female. Head above reddish-brown, the crown streaked with black ; sides of the head and lores dull fulvous, spotted posteriorly with black; neck sandy-brown, obsoletely barred with blackish above, boldly barred on the sides; upper back and scapulars sandy-brown with bold velvety-black edges and bars and with white arrow-shaped marks in the centre of the feathers; lower back, rump and upper tail-coverts mottled sandy-brown and black with indefinite black centres to the feathers, more pronounced on the rump, where and on the coverts there are also a few white marks; central tail-feathers the same as the coverts with faint mottled bars of dark brown; outer tail-feathers chestnut with broad black bars and white tips; breast sandy- or greyish-brown with a few black spots; lower breast, flanks and thigh-coverts sandy-rufous, barred with very pale grey; lower thigh-coverts darker brown; vent and centre of the abdomen duller than the flanks ; shorter under tail-coverts mottled brown, white and sandy; longest coverts chestnut with black bars and broad white tips ; visible plumage of the wings mottled grey, brown and sandy-rufous with bold markings of black; median and greater coverts edged whitish, forming narrow wing-bars; primaries brown, mottled with rufous and with pale buff bars on he outer webs.

Colours of soft parts. Small bare space round the eye red. Measurements. Wing 198 mm.

Distribution. Manipur, Patkoi Naga Hills, Lushai Hills and North Burma West of the Irrawaddy, South to Haka in the Chin Hills.

Nidification. Mrs. Hume's Pheasant breeds during April and May in the Chin Hills on ridges above 6,000 feet up to the highest on Mt. Victoria, roughly about 10,000 feet. There is no nest, the eggs being laid on the wind-blown leaves and rubbish in some natural hollow in the ground under a bush, rock or patch of grass. They breed principally in thin stunted forest without much undergrowth but very broken and rocky. The eggs number six or seven to ten and are like small fowls' eggs, not in the least like the eggs of true Phasianus. In colour they vary from very pale buff, almost white, to a rather warm buff, Forty eggs (mostly Mackenzie's measurements) average 48.7 x 35.3 mm,: maxima 51.5 x 36.3 and 49.5 x 37.5 mm.; minima 46.0 x 33.7 and 48.5 x 33.2 mm.

Habits. This beautiful Pheasant is found in the mountains between 4,000 and 10,000 feet, frequenting thin forest and open grass-land, either all grass, three feet or so in height, or grass with trees scattered here and there. Always, however, it seems to prefer very broken rocky ground on steep hill-sides. Its flight is said to be slower than that of the European Pheasant and it flies low, in and out of, rather than over, the tree-tops. Its call is said to be a low grunting note and no one seems to have heard them crow. It feeds on acorns, seeds, berries, roots and shoots as well as on all kinds of insects, worms, etc.

Callophasis burmanicus Oates, Ibis, 1898, p. 3 24 : Ruby Mines, Burma.

Syrmaticus humiae humiae Hume.

 

Callophasis humiae Hume, Str. Feath., vol. ix, p. 461, 1881 ; Manipur.