PHEASANT. 367 



Mr. J. H. Gurney, who has kindly suppHed me with 

 the followmg particulars : — Several years ago a pair of 

 pure Japan pheasants reached Amsterdam, where they 

 were purchased at a very large sum for the late Earl of 

 Derby. On their passage to Liverpool the hen bird 

 unfortunately died, but the cock reached Knowsley in 

 safety. A cross was soon effected between the old 

 Japan male and the common hen pheasant, and in two 

 or three seasons those birds which had been kept closest 

 to the pure blood of the male, assumed as nearly as 

 possible the appearance of pure Japanese specimens. At 

 the sale of the Knowsley collection ia 1851, the old 

 Japan cock was purchased at a high price by a foreigner, 

 and at the same time Mr. J. H. Gurney procured some 

 of the young birds. These bred most successfully, at 

 Easton and Northrepps, with the common pheasants 

 (though chiefly, I believe, with the ring-necked cross), 

 and produced magnificent specimens ; the eggs also being 

 greatly sought after by other game preservers in this 

 district, the race soon spread throughout the county. 

 From personal observation and enquiry, however, during 

 the last two or three years, it appears that evidences 

 of this cross, even in the coverts where these hybrids 

 were most plentiful, are now scarcely perceptible; the 

 strong characteristics of the Chinese bird apparently 

 absorbing all the less marked, though darker tints of 

 the Japanese. One of these birds kiUed in 1853, 

 weighed upwards of four and a half pounds, and many 

 examples, which were stuffed for the beauty of their 

 plumage, will be found ia the collections of our county 

 gentlemen. The Norwich museum does not possess 

 a specimen of the true P. versicolor, but No. 172.g, a 

 good example of the cross with P. colcliicus, is strongly 

 suffused with green over the neck and breast. The 

 so-called Bohemian pheasant, but in reality only a 

 pale buff-coloured variety and not a species, is also 



