192 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. 



Hankow, and from ifc seven Reeves's pheasants were deposited 

 in the Zoological Garden, Regent's Park. Mr. Medhurst was 

 anxious that Her Majesty Queen Victoria should have early 

 possession of specimens of P. reevesii ; and, in compliance 

 with his wish, one male and two females were offered 

 to and graciously accepted by Her Majesty. Since the 

 successful reintroduction of these birds they have bred freely 

 both in confinement and at large in England and on the 

 Continent, and are now to be purchased at the dealers. 



With regard to the distribution of this bird in China,, 

 Mr. Saurin remarks : " The Reeves's pheasant, called by the 

 Chinese Chi-Ghi, is very rarely seen in the Pekin market. 

 For a long time I failed to discover from what quarter they 

 came. . . . Last winter I ascertained, however, that they 

 came from the Tung-lin; and I have reason to suppose that 

 they are to be found nowhere else in the province of Chi-li. 

 About twenty birds were brought down alive last winter. 

 They are never brought in frozen or by Mongols. Their flesh 

 is very delicious, and superior, to my taste, to that of any 

 other pheasant." 



The general character of the plumage of the Reeves's 

 pheasant is well shown in the illustrations. The head is 

 covered by a cowl of white, surrounded by a band of black, 

 with a spot of white under the eye ; the neck has a broad ring 

 of white, margined below with a black collar ; the feathers of 

 the back and upper part of the breast are of a brilliant golden 

 yellow, margined with black ; those of the lower part of the 

 breast are white, each one presenting bands of black more or 

 less irregular in their arrangement; the under parts of the 

 body are deep black ; the tail is formed of eighteen feathers, 

 which are closely folded together, so that the entire tail 

 appears narrow; at the broadest part the feathers are about 

 2in. in width ; the ground colour of each tail feather is greyish- 

 white down the centre, and golden red at the edges, and 

 crossed with crescent-shaped bars, which vary in number 

 according to the length of the feather, in the longest feathers 



