64 SHOOTING IN CHINA 



and but too frequently in the latter of these 

 periods. And so the regrettable fact is 

 indisputable that the visible game supply- 

 grows markedly less and less, and when a 

 few more years shall have rolled by it is 

 conceivable that it may be said of shooting, 

 from which category the migratory birds 

 must, of course, be eliminated, " the glory 

 has departed." 



China is, and possibly for all time, will 

 be the congenial home of an infinite variety 

 of both flying and ground small game ; but 

 the China best known to the foreign 

 resident is limited to those districts which 

 are within the compass of the treaty ports. 



Pheasants : In writing of the small game 

 of China one's thoughts naturally and in- 

 stinctively turn to the family which is at 

 once the most numerous and most prolific, 

 the Phasiandae. 



According to the highest known authori- 

 ty on the subject, Dr. Bowdler Sharpe, of 

 the British Museum, there are some seven- 

 teen different kinds of true pheasants, of 

 which the following are common if not 

 peculiar to China : 



