22 LLOYD’S NATURAL HISTORY. 
During the day, numbers of them often disperse among the 
bushes, a flock of from ten to fifteen specimens occupying a 
Space of as many acres, and on being disturbed they fly up one 
ata time. They keep more together when feeding in open 
places, as, for instance, on the stubble-land. They eat the 
seeds of Lleagnus, Halimodendron, and Alhagi. Near the 
open spaces covered with the last-named thorny grass they 
conceal themselves amongst the tamarisk bushes, in which 
they find shelter, but no food. Besides these wild seeds, they 
eat in autumn every kind of cultivated corn, particularly Pazz- 
cum miliaceum, as well as peas and lupins. ‘The flocks, though 
often dispersed during the day, gather themselves together more 
closely at night, which they generally pass in the densest 
bushes, as in summer. I have also found them assembling for 
the night on the walls of abandoned and deserted farmyards, 
which on the Oxus, as well as in Turkestan, are built of clay, 
in the form of small fortresses. 
‘**T have never seen a dog bring one of the Pheasants to 
perch, as is related of P. colchicus in the Caucasus ; and, indeed, 
P. chrysomelas is eminently a ground bird, perching only 
exceptionally, although commencing to do so at an earlier 
season than P. mongolicus.” 
With a broad white ring round the neck. 
VIII THE MONGOLIAN RING-NECKED PHEASANT, PHASIANUS 
MONGOLICUS. 
Phasianus mongolicus, Brandt. Bull. Acad. St. Pétersb. ili. p. 
51 (1844); Gould, B. Asia, vii. pl. 41 (1858); Elliot, 
Monogr. Phas. ii. pl. iv. (1872); Ogilvie-Grant, Cat. B. 
Brit. Mus. xxii. p. 328 (1893). 
Adult Male.—Easily distinguished from all the maroon- and 
red-rumped species previously described, by having a d7voad 
white ring (interrupted in front) round the neck ; otherwise it 
most nearly resembles P. Zersicus, but the mantle, chest, and 
