442 NOVITATES ZOOLOOICAE XXIV. 1917. 



NOTES ON PHEASANTS. 



By ERNST HARTERT, Ph.D. 



1 . " Phasianus colchicus lorenzi " = P. colchicus colchicus. 



IN the Ibis, 1904, in his vahiable review of the genus Phasianus, Mr. Scrgius 

 Buturlin described as a new subspecies PJiasianvs colcliicus lorenzi from 

 Eastern Transcaucasia, i.e. the basins of the Kura and Araxes Rivers. He does 

 not say whether he e.xamined only one male or a great many, he does not lix 

 a " tyjje," nor does he explain it he had freshly moulted autumn, wintei', or 

 worn summer birds, which last always, of course, look rather different from 

 the autumn ones, after the moult. Females are not mentioned. 



We have in the Tring ^Museum three males and one female from the months 

 of December, February, and March, all in beautiful, unabraded filumage, from 

 Elisabetopol (Jcli.sawetpol) andTifiis, in the Kura Basin. A careful comparison 

 of these specimens with typical colchicus reveals their absolute identity. They 

 differ at a glance from their geographically nearest ally, P. c. talischoisis, and 

 from P. c. septentrionalis, but there are no differences from P.c. colchicus. Neither 

 are, as Mr. Buturlin would have it, the feathers of the jugulum more narrowly 

 margined with blue, nor is the abdomen brick-brown instead of black ; this 

 latter statement suggests to me that Mr. Buturlin may have had very few speci- 

 mens, if more than one, because it is a variable character — in a male of P. c. 

 talischensis, for exam])le, the middle of the abdomen is brick-red, in another 

 blackish, glossed with j)urplish blue. The sentence " pectore medio non viri- 

 de.scente, sed cupreo-rubro valde ditfert," I cannot understand at all, for .surely 

 the middle of the breast is not " greenish " in P. c. colchicus, but just as " copper- 

 red " as in the males from the Kura basin. The dimensions are the same, and 

 a female from the Kuia agrees absolutely with others of P. c. colchicvs. 

 I can, therefore, only admit three forms in the Caucasus region : 



1. P. colchicus colchicus L., in Transcaucasia, from the eastern and south- 

 eastern shores of the lUack Sea, the river basins of the Rion (the ancient Phasis) 

 and the Tchorok (Tscharuch) to tlie Kura and Araxes Basins. Nor is this dis- 

 tribution a very peculiar and unlikely one, as we have the following subspecies : 



2. P. colchicus seplentrionalis Lor., extending through the basins of the 

 Kuban and Terek, fro:n the Black Sea to the Caspian, though now extinct in 

 the middle portion of its range, between Stavropol and Georgievsk. 



'.',. P. colchicus talischensis Lor., from Lenkoran to North Persia, Ghilan 

 and Eastern Masanderan. 



2. Phasianus colchicus komarowi = prmcipalis. 



In the Ibis, 1904. pp. 381, .388, Buturlin separates Phasianus principalis 

 and komarou-i. The former was described by Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. London. 

 1885. p. .'i22, from " Bala Murghab," on the Murgab River, the latter by Bog- 

 danow, Bull. Acad. St. Petersbovrg, xxx. p. 35G. 1886, from specimens collected 

 by Zarudny on the Tejend or Heri-rud River, but not as distinct from principalis, 

 but because the author had not yet seen the description of the latter. Zarudny, 



