the True Pheasants. 579 



Dr. Bianchi, but nevertheless it belongs to quite a different 

 section of the genus, always having white eyebrows, and 

 therefore was named as a new fonn P. alaschanicus by 

 Messrs. Alpheraky and Bianchi themselves (1908, 1. c. 

 pp. 434, 452). And it is somewhat startling that these 

 esteemed zoologists wish to retain their conclusions after 

 they have withdrawn as erroneous the only facts on which 

 these conclusions were based. 



As a matter of fact, and after examining the Kan-su 

 specimens of M. M. Berezowski in the Irkutsk Museum in 

 1905, I can state that typical P. decollatus is up to now 

 known only from South-eastern Sze-chuan (Chung-king, 

 Swinhoe's specimen), western part of Central Sze-chuan 

 (Ta-tsian-lu, Pratt's specimens), and, it seems, from Western 

 Quei-Chow and North-eastern Yunnan (according to Abbe 

 David). As David and Oustalet did not distinguish between 

 P. decollatus and. P. strauchi (and P. herezowskii, of course) 

 and give the figure of P. strauchi (Ois. Chin. pi. 100) 

 under the name of P. decollatus, their other statements 

 must be rejected. No specimens of P. decollatus typicus 

 are known from Northern Sze-chuan or further north. 

 P. berezoivskii, being, it seems, only a local race — a 

 darker northern race — of P. decollatus, was collected by 

 M. M. Berezowski in South-eastern Kan-su (Hui-tsian) and. 

 in Northern Sze-chuan (village of Mu-gua-chi in Hwo-tsi-gou 

 Valley, 30 April, 1893, and perhaps, as stated above, another 

 specimen, from another part of Hwo-zsi-gou, 9 Jan., 1894). 

 Some, if not all. Sin-ling and Southern Shensi specimens of 

 " P. torquatus var. C " and of '' P. decollatus " of David 

 and Oustalet must belong to this form. 



Therefore P. herezowskii and P. decollatus are not met with 

 together and are distinct northern and southern forms of one 

 species. But Berezowski's Pheasant lives often side by side 

 with P. strauchi, as the latter is common not only in South- 

 western Kan-su, where P. herezowskii is not yet known, 

 but in South-eastern Kan-su as well (Min-tschou type of 

 P. holdereri of Schalow, and still further east, Hoi-sian 

 or Hui-tsian, just the home of the type specimen of 



