THAYER AND BANGS: AVES. 141 



at all seasons, to the low ground of the river bottoms or as he expressed it being 

 "semiaquatic," not only feeding and living in the wet marshes and rice-fields, 

 but "roosting there at night, sometimes in places where the water is part way 

 up its legs." He, however, took one male and two females in the upland country 

 at Hsienshanhsien. 



Phasianus holdereri, which is rather the more abundant, is on the other 

 hand wholly a bird of the rolling upland country at altitudes ranging from 2,000 

 to 6,000 feet and probably even higher; it was never seen in the lowlands. 



While thus apparently specifically distinct from P. torquatus, P. holdereri 

 is in all probability a subspecies of P. decolatus; the descriptions of P. berezow- 

 skyi Rothschild, suggesting strongly its relationship to decolatus on the one 

 side and to holdereri on the other. 



The two species, with which we here deal, are easily separated in the adult 

 male plumage by the following characters. 



P. HOLDERERI. 



1 . White collar always narrow; commonly very incomplete; usually not, though 



sometimes very narrowly connecting behind; sometimes altogether 

 wanting. 



2. Head, with no distinct paler superciliaries; crown and occup concolor, 



or very nearly so, with nape. 



3. Wing-coverts, olive-gray. 



4. Rump greener. 



5. Black bands on tail wider. 



6. Size a little larger. 



P. KIANGSUENSIS. 



1. White collar, always wide, always connecting behind. 



2. Head with conspicuous whitish superciliaries; crown and occup much 



duller, more brownish, than nape. 



3. Wing-coverts ashy gray. 



4. Rump grayer. 



5. Black bands on tail narrower. 



6. Size a little smaller. 



The slight difference in size is the only character for the separation of the 

 females, and this while it gives good average differences in the two series before 



