26 LLOYD’S NATURAL HISTORY. 
and can be seen in the daytime promenading in company with 
them. At that time these Pheasants are very wild and difficult 
to approach ; whilst at all other seasons they are most easy to 
shoot with the aid of a dog or by waiting for them at their 
drinking-places. 
‘‘Immediately the breeding-season is over, the males com 
mence moulting, which lasts until October ; and I have seen 
some which have lost all their tail-feathers at one time. In 
summer we found in Ordos many families of from six to ten 
specimens which were very various in size; and even as late 
as August some young ones were observed which did not 
exceed a Ptarmigan in size, and we found that generally 
Pheasants breed very late in Mongolia, and that the young 
grow slowly. 
“Whenever we saw a family of these Pheasants the old birds 
were present ; and the male bird seems to look as anxiously 
after the young as the hen, and, on the approach of danger, 
crows most vigorously, whilst the hen at once takes to wing 
and tries to attract the attention of the sportsman and his dog. 
The young always endeavour to save themselves by running, 
and do not separate from each other until late in the 
autumn.” 
As has been already remarked, since the introduction of 
the species into Europe and the British Islands it has inter- 
bred freely with P. co/chicus, and it is now only rarely that one 
comes across what appears to be a really pure-bred bird of either 
species. ‘The traces of the Chinese species in nearly pure-bred 
LP. colchicus are manifest in the partially defined white collar 
(sometimes only one or two white feathers) and the green bars 
on the feathers of the lower back; while in nearly pure-bred 
P. torquatus, the plumage of the mantle and flanks is darker 
than in typical Chinese examples, and the lesser and median 
wing-coverts are mixed with sandy-brown. 
Crosses between this species and the Japanese P. verszcolor, 
with which it readily interbreeds, are remarkably fine birds, 
