2IO GALLIFORMES CHAP. 



crown and full recumbent hair-like crest golden, the fine erectile 

 cape of truncated nape-plumes orange with blue-black bars, the 

 mantle dark green and purple, the rump golden, the primaries 

 brownish, the secondaries purplish with chestnut and black 

 coverts, the larger tail-coverts and the vaulted tail with its two 

 very long median rectrices black, with brown spots or stripes, 

 the scapulars and under parts scarlet, and the cheeks and throat 

 rufous. There are generally two spurs on each metatarsus, and 

 the bare orbits are yellowish. The female is brown, relieved by 

 black and buff, and has a shorter tail, no crest or cape. This 

 bird, difficult to naturalize in Britain, but easily domesticated, 

 inhabits wooded mountains in South and West China and East 

 Tibet, meeting in the last two countries the equally beautiful 

 Lady Amherst's Pheasant (C. amherstiae), which has dark green 

 crown, mantle, throat, and chest, blood-red crest, white cape 

 with blue-black bars, black and buff rump, glossy green and 

 brown wings, white breast and abdomen, and black and white 

 tail with scarlet and orange tips to the coverts. The orbits are 

 blue in both sexes, the female being otherwise as in C. pictus. 



The original Pheasant of Britain probably introduced by the 

 Romans was Phasianus colchicus, ranging from the Caspian to 

 South-East Europe ; but the Ring-necked species (P. torquatus) of 

 Manchuria, East Mongolia, Corea, Tsu-sima, and Eastern China, 

 imported towards the end of last century, has interbred with it so 

 freely that typical examples are now exceptional. The latter form 

 has a white collar and slaty lower back with dark green barring ; 

 while the former has the rump feathers buff, with black mottlings 

 and purplish-red tips. The females, hardly separable from one 

 another, lack the red face-wattles, the long ear-tufts, and the 

 pair of spurs of the male. The above-mentioned colour of the 

 lower back and the comparatively broad black basal tail-bands, 

 are the distinguishing points of a section, which comprises 

 P. torquatus, P. elegans of West China, P. vlangali of Tsaidam, 

 P. strauchi of Kansu, P. decollatus of Western and Central China, 

 P. satscheunensis of Sa-tscheu, P. formosanus of Formosa, and 

 P. versicolor of Japan. Another section, more akin to P. colchicus, 

 contains P. tarimensis and P. zerafshanicus of the Tarim and 

 Zerafshan Valleys, P. persicus of Persia and Transcaspia, P. prin- 

 cipalis of North-East Persia and North- West Afghanistan, P. 

 shawi of East Turkestan, P. chrysomelas of the Amu-Darya, and 



