162 PHEASANTS FOB COVERTS AND AVIARIES. 



where pheasants are preserved. The good points of the 

 Chinese are largely shared by their half-bred progeny ; hence 

 the cross between the common and the Chinese is a valuable 

 introduction to our preserves, retaining as it does to so great 

 a degree the beauty and early fertility of the pure Chinese 

 race, to which it adds great hardihood and larger size, but the 

 birds are generally regarded as more apt to stray, and some 

 gourmets maintain they are not quite so good a bird on the 

 table as the pure-bred P. colchicus. 



The extent to which the interbreeding of the two species 

 has taken place is well shown in the following interesting, 

 account taken from Stevenson's " Birds of Norfolk " : — " In 

 its semi-domesticated state, like our pigeons and poultry, 

 the common pheasant crosses readily with its kindred species, 

 and to so great an extent has this been carried in Norfolk 

 that, except in the wholly unpreserved districts, it is difficult 

 at the present time to find a perfect specimen of the old 

 English type (P. colchicus) without some traces, however 

 slight, of the ring-neck, and other marked features of the 

 Chinese pheasant (P. torguatus) , and in many localities of the 

 Japanese (P. versicolor) . In looking over a large number of 

 pheasants from different coverts, as I have frequently done of 

 late years in our fish market, I have noticed every shade of 

 difference from the nearly piire-bred ring-neck, with its buff- 

 coloured flanks and rich tints of lavender, and green on the 

 wing and tail-coverts, to the common pheasant in its brilliant 

 but less varied plumage, with but one feather in its glossy 

 neck just tipped with a speck of white. Some birds of the 

 first cross are scarcely distinguishable from the true P. 

 torquatus, and are most gorgeous objects when flushed in the 

 sunlight on open ground ; but as the ' strain ' gradually dies 

 out, the green and lavender tints on the back begin to fade, 

 and the rich orange flanks are toned down by degrees ; though 

 still the most marked feature of all, the white ring on the 

 neck, descends from one generation to another, and the 

 hybrid origin of the bird is thus apparent long after every 



