THE EARED PHEASANT. 243 



By placing a young brood in a large walled-in garden, 

 where they could obtain abundance of fresh vegetables and 

 insect food, they should offer no more difficulty in rearing 

 than barn-door fowls; all they would require would be 

 custard and lettuce in addition to ants' eggs, if obtainable ; 

 but fed on dry hard corn, and kept in small aviaries with 

 brick floors, success is not to be expected. 



Of the allied species, Hodgson's Crossoptilon (C. tibeta- 

 num), three specimens were living in the Zoological Gardens 

 in 1891. In this the general colour is bluish-white, but the 

 crown of the head is black, the wings dark, and the tail black 

 crossed with green and blue. It is a native of Tibet. 



Under the name of C. drouynii, a species very closely 

 allied, if, indeed, it be not identical with the last, has been 

 described and named by M. Verraux, and figured in Elliot's 

 Monograph of the Phasianidae. 



The original Eared Pheasant described by Pallas was -a 

 slaty-blue species. Pallas's specimens have long been lost, 

 but recently, owing to the indefatigable exertions of Pere 

 David, skins have been received at the Museum at Paris, and 

 the original C. auritum is now known to be perfectly distinct 

 from the Mantchurian species, with which we are most familiar 

 in the living state. 



