IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
| |||||||||
|
| IIIF Color HighRes |
| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Citation Information
280
D00K I.
MARCO POLO
appears to be Reeves's Pheasant..
Mr. Gould has identifi
~
ed 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.
Size is the point in which the bird fails to meet Marco's
description. In that respect
the latter would rather apply to the Crossoptilon auritum, which is nearly as big as a turkey, or to the glorious Mzfnál (Lopophorus impeyanus), but then that has no
length of tail. The latter
seems to be the bird described by 'Man : " Magnificent cocks which have the crest variegated and ornate like a crown of flowers, and the tail feathers not curved like a cock's, but broad and carried in a train like a peacock's ; the feathers are partly golden, and partly azure or emerald-coloured." ( Wood's Birds, 61o, from which I have copied the illustration ; Williams, M. h : I. 261 ; ./El. De Nat. An. XVI. 2.) A species of Crossoptilon has recently been found by Captain Prjevalsky in Alashan, the Egrigaia (as I believe) of next chapter, and one also by Abbé Armand David at the Koko Nor.
[See on the Phasianid e family in Central and Western Asia, David et Oustalet, Oiseaux de la Chine, 401-421 ; the Phasianus Reevesii or veneratus is called by the Chinese of Tung-lin, near Peking, Djeu-ly (hen-arrow) ; the Crossoptilon aurituin is named 117a-Iy. —H. C.]
Reeves's Pheasant.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Copyright (C) 2003-2019 National Institute of Informatics and The Toyo Bunko. All Rights Reserved.