602 THE MONGOLIAN PHE. ASANT. 
which passes tor an aria by Caruso with the gray lady in the sage-box. La! 
but it is absurd! Do you suppose—now do you suppose we ever make such 
fools of ourselves? 
In nesting, the female hides from the cock, as is the case with most of 
the grouse. A slight depression in the ground, barely or not at all lined with 
twigs and sage-leaves, serves for a cradle, with a sage bush for a canopy. The 
eggs are heavily colored, greenish gray or greenish drab as to ground with 
sharp dots and rounded spots of reddish brown or chocolate. Eight to fifteen 
is the number laid, but the smaller denomination represents the average size 
of fall flocks after the coyotes have taken toll. 
Sage is a thing accursed in the eyes of all thrifty farmer folk, and he 
whose ambition it is to cause two blades of grass to grow where none grew 
before, must needs abolish the wormwood. With it goes the Sage Grouse, 
after the Turkey, the largest and most irreclaimable of the American Tetra- 
onide. Its days are numbered, and there is no use wasting sentiment in the 
face of million dollar irrigation projects. Fare ye well, or fare ye ill, gray 
mourner of the wilderness! We have troubles enough of our own. 
No. 238. 
MONGOLIAN PHEASANT. 
Introduced. Phasianus torquatus Gmel. 
Synonyms.—RING-NECKED PHEASANT. CHINESE PHEASANT. DENNY 
PHEASANT. 
Description—<Adult male: Sides of head largely bare, with livid skin; top 
of head light greenish; short plumicorns dark green; throat and neck all around 
black, with rich metallic reflections ; a white cervical collar nearly meeting in front ; 
fore-neck and breast, well down, shining coppery red with golden and purplish 
reflections ; sides rich fulvous with black spots; belly mostly blackish; above with 
indescribable intricacy of marking,—black, white, copper, fulvous, pale blue, virid- 
ian green, glaucous green, etc., etc. (we are not morally responsible for the color- 
ing of this marvelous exotic); tail much lengthened, mostly greenish fulvous, 
edged with heliotrope-purple and cross-banded with black. Adult female: Much 
plainer, mostly brownish and without white collar; the upperparts more or less 
spotted and mottled with dusky; the underparts nearly plain buffy brown; the 
tail-feathers barred for their entire length, dusky and whitish on a mottled brown- 
ish ground. Adult male length 30.00 (762) or more, of which more than 16.00 
(406.4) is tail. 
Recognition Marks.—Size of domestic fowl. Long tail and white collar 
distinetive, 
Nesting.—Nest: on the ground of dried leaves, grasses, ete., usually in grass 
tussock or under bush. Eggs; 8-15, yellowish, olive-drab, or bluish buff. Av. 
size, 1.61 X 1.31 (40.9 x 33.3). Season: April-July; two or three broods, 
