24 ALLENS NATURALISTS LIBRARY. 



forms, Severt'ov says that the country between Kuldja and 

 Urumtsi, at the base of the Tian-shan mountains, where this 

 form was first obtained, is a steppe locality with a rivulet and 

 marshes. 



B. General colour of the loiver back, rump, and upper tail- 

 coverts greenish or bluish slate-colour, zvith a rust- 

 coloured patch on each side {except in P. versicolor). 

 M'^^ith a white ring round the Jieck. 



IX. THE CHINESE RING-NECKED PHEASANT. PHASIANUS 

 TORQUATUS. 



Phasianus torquatus, Gmelin, S. N. i. pt. ii. p. 742 (1788); J 

 E. Gray, 111. Ind. Orn. ii. pi. 41, fig. i (1834); Gould, 

 B. Asia, vii. pi. 39 (1856) ; Sclater and Wolf, Zool. Sket. 

 i. pi. 37 (1861) ; Elliot, Monogr. Phasian. ii. pi. v. (1872) ; 

 Prjevalsky, in Rowley's Orn. Misc. ii. p. 385 (1877); 

 Ogilvie-Grant, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxii. p. 331 (1893). 



Phasianus albotorquatus, Bonnat. Tabl. Encycl. Meth. i. p. 184 



(1791)- 



{Plate XXn.) 



Adult Male. — The colour of the lower back, &c., mentioned 

 above, serves to distinguish this species at a glance from all those 

 already described. The ground-colour of the mantle and flank- 

 feathers is bright ora?tge-buff instead of primrose, as in P. for- 

 mosanus (but it must be added that in some birds from Corea 

 and China this difference is scarcely apparent) ; the chest- and 

 breast-feathers have only the fiarrowest purple margins, and 

 the whole breast is glossed with purplish-lake, as in P.persicus. 

 From the red-rumped species this and the following birds are 

 further distinguished by having the black bars on the basal 

 part of the tail-feathers much wider. Total length, 35 inches ; 

 wing, 9'2 ; tail, 20*2 ; tarsus, 27. 



Adult Female. — Closely resembles the female of P. colchicus. 

 Total length, 24*5 inches; wing, 8-2 ; tail, 10-5; tarsus, 2*4. 



