272 ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS 



The upper part of its head is tawny with a gloss of 

 green, two white dashes surmount the eyes, and the 

 rest of the head and neck are of a deep and brilliant 

 green with a violet reflection, except where the white 

 collar that gives name to the species passes round the 

 neck. The feathers of the back are black in the middle, 

 surrounded by a zig-zag whitish band, and tipped by a 

 black arrow-shaped spot ; those of the shoulders are 

 black at the base, marked in the centre by a whitish 

 pupil surrounded by a black ring, and chestnut with 

 somewhat of a purple gloss towards their tips. The 

 tail-coverts are light green, with loose silky barbs ; the 

 breast of a brilliant reddish purple ; the sides pale 

 yellow ; the under parts and thighs black with a gloss 

 of violet ; and the tail-feathers olive green in the middle 

 with broad black transverse bands. In the female there 

 is a narrow band of short black feathers beneath each 

 eye, which distinguishes her from the Common Hen 

 Pheasant, from which she differs besides in the want 

 of the black spots upon the breast, and the greater 

 intensity of the transverse black bars upon her tail. 

 The eggs too differ in being of a light blue, with a 

 tinge of green, and marked by numerous little spots of 

 a deeper hue. 



The Ring-necked Pheasant is said to inhabit in 

 China the same forests with the western species, but 

 never to mingle with it in a state of nature. It is, 

 however, less abundant in the north, where the other 

 is most common. The Society's specimens, from which 

 our figures are taken, are perhaps not altogether free 

 from a slight mixture of the common breed. One of 

 the hens has in the course of the present year assumed 

 a portion of the plumage which is usually characteristic 

 of the male ; a change which occurs in female birds, 

 when they are incapacitated, by age or disease, from 

 laying eggs. 



