CHAPTEPt XL 



PHEASANTS ADAPTED TO THE COVERT 

 (CONTINUED). 



THE CHENESE PHEASANT {PHASIANUS 

 TORQUATUS). 



ONSUL SWINHOE, Mr. Dudley E. Saurin, P^re 



-jj|i^w!r' David, Prjevalski, and other naturalists wlio have 



Jjjl^" investigated the fauna of the Chinese empire, 



$h} unite in confirming the belief that this pheasant 



Y^ [P. torquatus) is the most common species in China, 



*1 abounding in vast numbers in the hill coverts and 



cotton fields. Mr. Saurin states: ''The common Chinese 



pheasant is found everywhere in the north of China, I am 



not aware how much further south they are found than 



Shanghai ; but in that neighbourhood, since the devastation 



of the country by the Tai-pings, they are shot by hundreds. 



Thousands are brought down to the Pekin market in a frozen 



state by the Mongols, from as far north as the Amour. At 



the new Eussian port of Poussiet, conterminous with the 



Corea, the same pheasant abounds. I myself have seen them 



wild in the Imperial hunting grounds north of Jehol, and in 



the mountains near Ku-peh-kow.'^ 



Cousul Swinhoe says that it is very common near Hankow, 

 and at all the places that have been visited by Europeans 

 north of the Yangtze. Formosa swarms with these birds ; 

 the specimens found there, however, differ from those of the 

 typical race by having the ochreous feathers on the flanks 



