22 Lloyd's natural history. 



During the day, numbers of them often disperse among the 

 bushes, a flock of from ten to fifteen specimens occupying a 

 space of as many acres, and on being disturbed they fly up one 

 at a time. They keep more together when feeding in open 

 places, as, for instance, on the stubble-land. They eat the 

 seeds of Ekagnus, Halimodendron^ and Alhagi. Near the 

 open spaces covered with the last-named thorny grass they 

 conceal themselves amongst the tamarisk bushes, in which 

 they find shelter, but no food. Besides these wild seeds, they 

 eat in autumn every kind of cultivated corn, particularly Pani- 

 cum miliaceum^ as well as peas and lupins. The flocks, though 

 often dispersed during the day, gather themselves togetiier more 

 closely at night, which they generally pass in the densest 

 bushes, as in summer. I have also found them assembling for 

 the night on the walls of abandoned and deserted farmyards, 

 which on the Oxus, as well as in Turkestan, are built of clay, 

 in the form of small fortresses. 



" I have never seen a dog bring one of the Pheasants to 

 perch, as is related of P. colchiciis in the Caucasus ; and, indeed, 

 P. chrysojiielas is eminently a ground bird, perching only 

 exceptionally, although commencing to do so at an earher 

 season than P. mongolicus.^^ 



With a broad white ring round the ?ieck. 



VIIL THE mongolian RING-NECKED PHEASANT. PHASIANUS 



MONGOLICUS. 



Phasianus inongolicus^ Brandt. Bull. Acad. St. Petersb. iii. p. 

 51 (1844); Gould, B. Asia, vii. pi. 41 (1858); Elliot, 

 Monogr. Phas. ii. pi. iv. (1872) ; Ogilvie-Grant, Cat. B. 

 Brit. Mus. xxii. p. 328 (1893). 



Adult Male. — Easily distinguished from all the maroon- and 

 red-rumped species previously described, by having a broad 

 white ring (interrupted in front) round the neck ; otherwise it 

 most nearly resembles P. persiais^ but the mantle, chest, and 



