312 



The Fowl-like Birds 



is another species resembling the Common Pheasant, but having the wing-coverts 

 tinged with gray, and the feathers of the chest and breast edged with dark green ; 

 while most closely related to this is the Oxas or Severtzoff's Pheasant (P. chryso- 

 melas) of the valley of Oxas, which has a triangular dark green spot at the 

 ' extremity of each feather of mantle, back, and rump. The Mongolian Pheasant 

 (P. mongolicus] of central Asia and Turkestan is a splendid bird, much resem- 

 bling the Persian Pheasant, but distinguished at once by having a broad white 

 ring around the neck, a feature which also characterizes the Chinese Ring-necked 

 Pheasant (P. torquatus) and several of the following species, which otherwise 

 differ in having the lower back, rump, and tail-coverts greenish or bluish slate- 

 color. The latter species enjoys a wide range from eastern Siberia and Mon- 

 golia to Korea and eastern China, and is the species already mentioned as having 

 been introduced into Great Britain, the United States, etc. Quite distinct from 

 all other members of the genus is the Japanese Pheasant (P. versicolor], which 

 has the under parts dark green and the upper parts deep glossy green, with the 

 wing-coverts blue and the shoulders orange-red; it occurs in all the Japanese 

 Islands except Yezo. The last to be mentioned is the wonderful Reeves's 

 Pheasant (P. (Syrmaticus} reevesii), of the mountains of northern and western 

 China, the male of which attains a length of six and a half feet, of which, however, 

 the tail slightly exceeds five feet. 



Barred-backed Pheasants. Closely allied to the true Pheasants, and indeed 

 formerly included with them, are three species known as the Barred-ba CKLY] 

 Pheasants (Calophasis], which have been separated on the ground that the tail 

 is composed of sixteen instead of eighteen 

 feathers, and the lower back and rump 

 in the males being barred transversely 

 with black and white. Of these Elliot's 

 Pheasant (C. ellioti) inhabits the moun- 

 tains of southern China and appears to 

 be extremely rare. The others are Hume's 

 Pheasant (C. humm), a still rarer species of 

 Manipur, and Oates's Pheasant (C. bur- 

 manicus] of the southern Shan states. But 

 little is known of the habits of these birds, 

 their nidification being entirely unknown. 



Golden and Lady Amherst's Pheasants. 

 Beyond question the most gorgeously plu- 

 maged members of the entire group are the 

 Golden and Lady Amherst's Pheasants 

 (Chrysolophus pictus and C. amher slice) of western and southern 

 China and eastern Tibet, the males of which have a full, long 

 crest of hair-like feathers and a peculiar cape-like ruff of erectile 

 feathers on the back of the head and neck, while the tail of eighteen 

 feathers is long and vaulted, the central feathers being more than 

 four times the length of the outermost pair. In the Golden 



FIG. 101. Gold- 

 en Pheasant, 

 Chrysolophus 

 pictus. 



