26 Lloyd's natural history. 



and can be seen in the daytime promenading in company with 

 them. At that time these Pheasants are very wild and difficult 

 to approach ; whilst at all other seasons they are most easy to 

 shoot with the aid of a dog or by waiting for them at their 

 drinking-places. 



*' Immediately the breedino^-season is over, the males com 

 mence moulting, which lasts until October ; and I have seen 

 some which have lost all their tail-feathers at one time. In 

 summer we found in Ordos many families of from six to ten 

 specimens which were very various in size ; and even as late 

 as August some young ones were observed which did not 

 exceed a Ptarmigan in size, and we found that geneially 

 Pheasants breed very late in Mongolia, and that the young 

 grow slowly. 



" Whenever we saw a family of these Pheasants the old birds 

 were present ; and the male bird seems to look as anxiously 

 after the young as the hen, and, on the approach of danger, 

 crows most vigorously, whilst the hen at once takes to wing 

 and tries to attract the attention of the sportsman and his dog. 

 The young always endeavour to save themselves by running, 

 and do not separate from each other until late in the 

 autumn." 



As has been already remarked, since the introduction of 

 tho species into Europe and the British Islands it has inter- 

 bred freely with P. colchicus, and it is now only rarely that one 

 comes across what appears to be a really pure-bred bird of either 

 species. The traces of the Chinese species in nearly pure-bred 

 P. colchicus are manifest in the partially defined white collar 

 (sometimes only one or two white feathers) and the green bars 

 on the feathers of the lower back ; while in nearly pure-bred 

 P. torquatus, the plumage of the mantle and flanks is darker 

 than in typical Chinese examples, and the lesser and median 

 wing-coverts are mixed with sandy-brown. 



Crosses between this species and the Japanese P. versicolor, 

 with which it readily interbreeds, are remarkably fine birds, 



