NOVITATES ZOOLOGICAE XXIV. 1917. 443 



who had collected ijheasants on both rivers, considered them to be one and 

 the same form in his writings in 1889, 1890, 1896, and 1903. Ogilvie-Grant 

 united both in 1893 and 1912, Alpheraky and Bianchi did the same in 1908. 

 Evidently all these authors are right and Buturlin wrong. The only difference 

 between the males of the two supposed forms is, according to the latter author, 

 that the wide blackish ends to the flank-feathers have a greenish gloss in 

 komarowi, a purplish gloss in ■principalis. This would admittedly be the only 

 difference ! Very little indeed, but — as Buturlin says — enough to separate 

 the two forms, if constant. This, however, is not the case, as not all males 

 from the Tejend have the gloss on the said feathers greenish, and some 

 from Merw, on the Murgab River, show distinctly a greenish gloss as well. 

 I comjoared four males from the Tedjen Valley with fifteen from the Murgab 

 Basin. Buturlin says that Ph. komarowi is separated from principalis to the 

 east " by a narrow belt of waterless plains." He, of course, means the desert 

 between the Upper Tejend and Murgab Rivers. This waterless belt is probably 

 not wide enough to form an efficient boundarj', in the face of the fact stated 

 by Buturlin, that Ph. principalis ranges north-east to Repetek, which is farther 

 out in the desert than the width of land between the Tejend and Murgab Rivers, 

 and these rivers are wide sheets of waters when they are flooded in the spring. 



3. On Phasianus zarudnyi, gordius, and tschardjuensis. 



If Buturlin's latest views were correct, at least three species of Phasianus 

 would inhabit the middle course of the Amu Darja or Oxus River, apart from 

 chrijsomelns in the delta, i.e. Ivliiva (Chiva), " as far as Petro-Alexandrovsk." 



In 1896 Zarudny described (in Russian!) as a new species Phasianvs 

 medius, inhabiting the valley of the Amu Darja from " Khiva to Chardjui." 

 Unfortunately the name tnaliu.s was invalidated by P. medius Milne-Edwards 

 1870, and therefore Buturlin (Ibis, lS9t. p. 390) correctly gave it a new name, 

 calling it very justly Phasianus principalis zarudnyi, though Ph. colchiciis 

 zarudnyi would still have been better. This P. c. zarttdnyi differs from P. c. 

 principalis in having only a black spot at the tip of the scapulars or a narrow 

 black lino, not one of 2 or 3 mm. wide ; on the sides of the neck is as a rule, 

 though not always, a trace of a white collar, which is, however, never com- 

 plete, being widely interruisted above and below, and sometimes quite absent. 

 The coppery-purple edges to the chest-feathers are, as a rule, a shade darker, 

 the wide black tips to the flank-feathers greenish. From the few specimens I 

 was able to examine, it seems also that the feathers of the throat have green 

 to blue-green, instead of purple edges. This form is said to inhabit the Middle 

 Oxus Valley from Petro-Alexandrovsk to Chardjui, " and perhaps somewhat 

 higher up the river." This latter supposition seems to be justified, as we have 

 a fine male froni Kerki, a hundred miles farther up the river, which has no trace 

 of a white collar, but is evidently a typical zarudnyi. According to Russian 

 authors, Ph. chrysomelas is also found as far as Petro-Alexandrovsk ; as there 

 can, in my opinion, be no doubt that both chrysomelas and zarudnyi are sub- 

 species of Ph. colchicus, these statements are open to doubt. They may be 

 based on the occurrence of stray specimens, or on inexact labels. No pheasant 

 would perhaps be shot literally at Petro-Alexandrovsk, which is a fortress or 

 fort, but near there ; if, therefore, both forms meet near that place, where 



