206 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. 



arrangement of the colours, and has consequently been 

 regarded as a distinct species, and named P. principalis, 

 in commemoration of the fact that the skins were received 

 from His Majesty King Edward VII. when Prince of Wales. 



It has been successfully introduced and reared in our 

 coverts by Colonel Marsden Sunderland, and is a most 

 valuable addition to our coverts, giving size and hardihood 

 to our native birds. The plumage is beautifully spangled 

 with bright purplish black on a rich golden red ground, the 

 white shoulders and dark flight feathers standing out in 

 strong contrast ; but there is no ring around the neck, as in 

 the Chinese pheasant. 



In its habits it differs somewhat from our common species 

 in frequenting swampy ground covered with reeds, returning 

 to the covert to roost at night. In its native habitat it is 

 most abundant. At Masuchak, on the Upper Murghab, in 

 Northern Afghanistan, Major Durand and Major Yate, as 

 recorded in the latter officer's letters from the " Afghan 

 Boundary Commission/' brought in a bag of nearly fifty 

 specimens killed during the afternoon. " It is extraordinary/' 

 Major Yate remarks, " what a number of pheasants there are 

 in the reed swamps of this valley, and this year they seem to 

 be even more numerous than last. I know of no country in 

 the world where one can get such good real wild-pheasant 

 shooting as this. On the 21st we also brought in a bag of 

 seventy-two pheasants, but, as on the first day, lost a good 

 many wounded birds. The reeds are so thick, and the birds, 

 especially the old cocks, so strong, that it is very hard to bag 

 one's bird even after it is shot." 



Dr. Aitchison, writing of this pheasant in the Transactions 

 of the Linnean Society, says : " The specimens of this 

 pheasant were all got on the banks of the Bala Murghab, 

 where it occurs in considerable numbers in the tamarisk and 

 grass jungle growing in the bed of the river. More than 

 four hundred were killed in the march of thirty miles up this 

 river. It not only wades through the water in trying to make 



