64 SHOOTING IN CHINA 



and but too frequently in the latter of these 

 periods. And so the regrettable fact is 

 indisputable that the visible game supply 

 grows markedly less and less, and when a 

 few more years shall have rolled by it is 

 conceivable that it may be said of shooting, 

 from which category the migratory birds 

 must, of course, be eliminated, " the glory 

 has departed." 



China is, and possibly for all time, will 

 be the congenial home of an infinite variety 

 of both flying and ground small game ; but 

 the China best known to the foreign 

 resident is limited to those districts which 

 are within the compass of the treaty ports. 



Pheasants : — In writing of the small game 

 of China one's thoughts naturally and in- 

 stinctively turn to the family which is at 

 once the most numerous and most prolific, 

 the Phasiandae. 



According to the highest known authori- 

 ty on the subject, Dr. Bowdler Sharpe, of 

 the British Museum, there are some seven- 

 teen different kinds of true pheasants, of 

 ■which the following are common if not 

 peculiar to China : — 



