Note {5} — Chapter LVII

Note 5.—The China pheasant answering best to the indications in the text, appears to be Reeves’s Pheasant. Mr. Gould has identified this bird with Marco’s in his magnificent Birds of Asia, and has been kind enough to show me a specimen which, with the body, measured 6 feet 8 inches. The tail feathers alone, however, are said to reach to 6 and 7 feet, so that Marco’s ten palms was scarcely an exaggeration. These tail-feathers are often seen on the Chinese stage in the cap of the hero of the drama, and also decorate the hats of certain civil functionaries.