The pheasant in the illustration was discovered in 1869 in the Khasi Hills, Assam, by Dr. T.C. Jerdon, Surgeon-Major and zoologist, who arranged for the live bird to be transported to Calcutta by Major Montagu of the Bengal Staffs Corps and thence to England. It arrived at the London Zoological Gardens in good health and Gould was able to study the bird in perfect plumage, admiring particularly the splendid golden-yellow of its face and throat. Unfortunately it did not survive long, dying suddenly in 1870. The species was named by Jerdon after Edward Blyth (1810-1873), Curator of the Natural History Museum in Calcutta from 1842 to 1864, whom Gould described as: 'One of the first zoologists of his time and founder of that science in India'.
The foreground male is almost lifesize. As Gould had not seen an example of the female bird, the figure in the far distance is based on supposition.
D.G. Elliot, Monograph of the Phasianidae, 1872, I, pl.27
T.C. Jerdon, Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1870, p.60
DISTRIBUTION: Southern Asia: southeastern Tibet, northeastern India, southwestern China and western and northeastern Burma.
Listed as threatened and vulnerable because of habitat destruction and hunting