THE TRUE PHEASANTS. I7 



siderable numbers in the tamarisk and grass jungle growing 

 in the bed of the river. More than four hundred were killed 

 on the march of thirty miles up this river. It not only wades 

 through the water in trying to make from one point of vantage 

 to another, but swims, and seems to be quite at home in these 

 thickets, where there is always water to the depth of two or 

 three feet. These swampy localities afford good shelter. In 

 the mornings and evenings the Pheasants leave it for the more 

 open and dry country, where they pick up their food. I 

 believe the same species is found on the Hari-rud river, but 

 I have seen no specimens from that locality." 



IV. THE ZERAFSHAN PHEASANT. PHASIANUS ZERAFSHANICUS. 



Phasianus zerafshanicus^ Tarnovski, Field, Ixxvii. p. 409 

 (1891); Ogilvie-Grant, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxii. p. 326 



(1893). 

 Phasianus klossovskii^ Tarnovski, Field, Ixxvii. p. 409 (1891). 



Phasianus tarnovskii^ Seebohm, P. Z. S. 1892, p. 271. 



Adult Male. — Closely allied to the male of P. priticipalis^ but 

 the scapulars are not margined with dark greenish-purple, and 

 the breast-feathers have narrow heart-shaped purplish margins, 

 much as in P. persicus. 



Ran^e. — Zarafshan Valley. 



Lieutenant G. Tarnovski writes : — " Mr. Klossovski, who 

 had resided in Katta-Koorgan for thirteen years, informed me 

 that Pheasants had made their appearance in the district of 

 Katta-Koorgan (where we were shooting) about 1883, and that 

 they had immigrated from the Bokharian dominions, probably 

 from the Kara-Kul lakes and reeds (the Zarafshan does not 

 reach the Amu-Darya, but is lost in the sands of Kara-Kul), 

 whence they were driven forth by the invasion of the Kisil- 

 Koom sands, which gradually bury the western part of Bok- 

 hara under their hills. 



" At present this Pheasant steadily moves up the Zarafshan. 



12 G 



