=^^ 



61 



CHAPTER XII 



Distribution of the Pheasants of the United States 



We have already noted the fact that the pheasant commonly found 

 in the eastern United States is the ringneck, a hybrid sprung from the 

 common pheasant, Phasianus colchicus, and the Chinese pheasant, Phasia- 

 nus torquatus, and that that of the Pacific Coast is the pure Chinese, 

 {Phasianus torquatus). The following rule for distinguishing the com- 

 mon, the Chinese and their hybrid, the ringneck, has been given me by 

 Mr. C. William Beebe, curator of ornithology of the New York City Zoo- 

 logical Park, the first volume of whose monumental work on the pheasants 

 of the world has recently been announced: 



HOW TO DISTINGUISH "COMMON," "CHINESE" AND 

 "RINGNECK." — If the loose, hair-like, disintegrated, feathers which 

 cover the lower back and rump are: 



1. Pure maroon, the bird is a pure-bred "common" pheasant 

 {Phasianus colchicus), a bird that is rarely seen in England 

 today, so generally has it been crossed with the Chinese pheasant 

 {Phasianus torquatus) . 



2. If pure green, the bird is a pure-bred Chinese pheasant 

 {Phasianus torquatus). 



3. If mottled, or a blend of maroon and green, the bird is a 

 ringneck, the pheasant commonly found in England and Eastern 

 United States and which is a cross between colchicus and torquatus, 

 with sometimes, in Great Britain, an admixture of the blood of 

 the Japanese pheasant {Phasianus versicolor). 



SPECIES COMMONLY BRED.— Species of pheasants other than 

 ringnecks which are more or less commonly bred by the large commercial 

 breeders are the Reeves, Mongolian, Japanese (versicolor). Prince of Wales, 

 golden, silver and Amherst. Most of the Pacific Coast breeders breed 

 the pure Chinese rather than the ringneck, in addition to the species just 

 mentioned. Of the latter the four first mentioned belong to the genus 

 Phasianus, whose members are known as true pheasants, and they are all 

 more or less of the type of bird adapted to the coverts of this country. 

 The remaining species of the list are commonly referred to as aviary birds 

 and, generally speaking, are not adapted to such cover as is typical of the 

 United States. For that reason, these are seldom liberated but drag out 

 what must be a rather miserable existence in an aviary. There are to be 

 had of a few breeders, of course, other and rarer species of aviary pheasants, 

 but such have no place in a work of this nature. 



