MKS. HUME'S PHEASANT 201 



green. Thus a broad band of richly glossed dark colour runs 

 right down the under-parts, completely separating the brassy- 

 chestnut of the flanks. From Mrs. Hume's pheasant, the only one 

 similar in form found with us, the present bird is distinguished 

 at once by not having the white bars on the wing. 



Stone's pheasant is found at an elevation of about 5,000 feet 

 in the Northern Shan States, as well as at Momien in Yunnan, 

 and in Szechuen. Its habits present nothing worthy of special 

 mention ; in Yunnan it was found frequenting grassy hills ; and 

 it may be remarked that the pheasants of this type naturally 

 affect grass, reeds, and scrub-jungle, not high forest. 



The Chinese ring-neck, which, subject to local variations, 

 ranges from Kobdo to Canton, is the best all-round sporting bird 

 in the world ; it is now thoroughly mixed up with the original 

 pheasant brought by the ancients into Europe from Asia Minor, 

 and most English pheasants show traces of intermixture with it. 

 It has been established also in places so wide apart as Oregon, 

 New Zealand, Samoa, and St. Helena, and is often imported alive 

 into Calcutta, where I have known an unmated hen lay and try 

 to hatch her eggs. Such an adaptable bird is well worthy of 

 introduction almost anywhere, and might be tried in the Ceylon 

 hills and in the Nilgiris. 



Mrs. Hume's Pheasant. 



Calophasis humia. Loe-nin-koi, Manipur. 



Anyone coming across this pheasant is likely at once to notice 

 its resemblance to our familiar species at home, to which, indeed, 

 it is nearly allied, though not nearly so closely as is Stone's 

 pheasant. It may be distinguished from that bird by the two 

 white bars on the wings and by the white edgings to the 

 feathers of the lower back, which in some specimens conceal the 

 dark bases, so that these would show a conspicuous white patch 

 in that region which would be very noticeable w'hen the bird 

 was on the wing. 



Such white-backed specimens are to be found in the Ruby 

 Mines district in Burma, and some writers consider them as a 



