Barred-backed Pheasants

( Originally Published Early 1900's )

Closely allied to the true Pheasants, and indeed formerly included with them, are three species known as the Barred-backed Pheasants (Calophasis), which have been separated on the ground that the tail is composed of sixteen instead of eighteen feathers, and the lower back and rump in the males being barred transversely with black and white. Of these Elliot's Pheasant (C. ellioti) inhabits the mountains of southern China and appears to be extremely rare. The others are Hume's Pheasant (C. humice), a still rarer species of Manipur, and Oates's Pheasant (C. burmanicus) of the southern Shan states. But little is known of the habits of these birds, their nidification being entirely unknown.