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THIRD SERIES. 
Vou. X.] ss UE, .<1 88 6. (No. 114. 
ON THE PHEASANT OF ST. HELENA. 
By Henry SEEBOHM. 
Vistrors to the Indian and Colonial Exhibition may see, in 
the small court allotted to the Island of St. Helena, a series of 
Pheasants from that isolated dependency of the British Crown. 
These Pheasants belong to the species described by Gmelin as 
Phasianus torquatus, one of the many species to which Gmelin 
gave a Latin name in his edition of the ‘ Systema Natura’ of 
Linneus, published in 1788, from descriptions borrowed from 
Latham’s ‘General Synopsis of Birds,’ published in volumes 
from 1781 to 1785. This species, commonly called the Chinese 
Ring-necked Pheasant, has been introduced into England, and 
has interbred with the previously introduced Colchican Pheasant, 
Phasianus colchicus, to such an extent that it is almost impossible 
to obtain examples in this country that are not monerels between 
the two species [or between these and the Japanese Phasianus 
versicolor.—Kp.]. In addition to the white ring round the neck, 
one of the most conspicuous differences between the two first- 
named species is to be found in the predominant colour of the 
lower back, which is blue-grey or lavender-colour in the Chinese 
species, and chestnut-red in the Persian bird. It is a remarkable 
fact that the various species of Pheasants, all closely allied to 
our bird, which inhabit the semi-tropical regions of Asia from 
Turkey to China, are divided into two groups by the meridian of 
Calcutta, those to the west of that line having red lower backs, 
ZOOLOGIST.— JUNE, 1886. s 
