444 NOVITATES ZOOLOOICAE XXIV. 1917. 



perhaps the natural conditions of the delta of the Amu Darja make place for 

 those of the middle course of the river, specimens .shot ten or twelve miles north 

 and ten or twelve miles south might all be labelled Petxo-Alcxandrovsk, 

 although not livuig in the same places. 



In 1908 {Ann. 3Iiis. Zool. Acad. St. Pelershourg. xii. " 1907." p. 440), 

 Messrs. Alpheraky & Bianchi described Phasianus gordius from a single cj 

 specimen from Karnas, 50 miles up the river from Kcrki. The description fits, 

 as Buturlin {Ibis, 1908. p. 573) correctly says, absolutely coUarless specimens 

 of zarudnyi, but he adds that the type specimen differs from the latter " in 

 the purplish-red colouring of the chest extending to the uppermost part of the 

 back and quite suiDcrseding there the golden ground-colour." At the same 

 time {Ibis, 1908. p. 371) the author described another " new species" as Pha- 

 sianus tschardjuensis, and of which he says that it differs from gordius in having 

 the scapularies edged with a 1 to 2 mm. wide black line, and the purplish-red 

 colouring not c^uite so much developed on the upper back. 



The first of these two characters is undoubtedly variable, and therefore 

 of no value if only one or two specimens are compared, the other is obviously 

 not a strong point. I have, therefore, no doubt that gordius and tschardjuensis 

 are one and the same bird, and this has also clearly been pointed out by Zarudny 

 in the following year, but I cannot helj) suspecting that they are nothing else 

 but Zarudnyi. If there was another subspecies — there can be no question of 

 species, considering the nature of the supjjosed differences, and that all these 

 forms are only subspecies of Ph. colchicus — farther up the river than zarudnyi, 

 which is said to live from Petro-Alexandrovsk to Chardjui " and perhajis some- 

 what higher up the river," how can there be a different race again at Chardjui 

 and the same (or almo.st the same) at Karnas, while not this, but zarudnyi occurs 

 at Kcrki ! These mysteries of distribution disapjiear at once if we suppose 

 that gordius and tschardjuensis are the same as zarudnyi, and I believe that 

 future unbiassed research will prove this to be the case. 



Still higher up the river we find bianchii, a very distinct race, nearest to 

 chrysomelas from the delta of the Oxus, but with much more developed green 

 edges to the feathers of the jugulum, chest, and sides, and reduced golden sub- 

 apical bars to the feathers of these parts. 



In addition to these N. Zarudny has described (see Baron Loudon's transla- 

 tion of the original article in " Ssemja ochotnikow," a hunting-journal, in 

 Ornilh. Jahrb. 1910. p. 45) a bii'd which he calls Phasianus jabae. Of this 

 he says that it rarely appears from the east in the country inhabited by gordius, 

 but only as an occasional visitor, like zarudnyi, which exceptionally appears 

 there from the west. This " jabac^'' is described as forming a transition from 

 bianchii to " gordius," but the author repudiates the idea that it might be a 

 hybrid between the two, because bianchii was not found where it occurred. 

 Though I am the last person to jump to the conclusion that a bird which does 

 not agree with the hitherto known forms is a hybrid, having in fact often ridiculed 

 such rash statements, I cannot quite see the force of the above proof, because 

 Zarudny evidently only knows some stray bh-ds (possibly not more than a single 

 specimen !), of which he expressly says that they (or it ! ) came from the " east," 

 and eastwards of where his "jabae " was found is the home of bianchii. Now, 

 the Tring Museum possesses a male which agrees with the description of ''jabae,'''' 

 and which might be described as intermediate between zarudnyi and bianchii. 



