; 
: 
; 
; 
THAYER AND BANGS: AVES. 141 
at all seasons, to the low ground of the river bottoms or as he expressed it being 
“‘semiaquatic,’’ not only feeding and living in the wet marshes and rice-fields, 
but “‘roosting there at night, sometimes in places where the water is part way 
up its legs.” He, however, took one male and two females in the upland country 
at Hsienshanhsien. 
Phasianus holdereri, which is rather the more abundant, is on the other 
hand wholly a bird of the rolling upland country at altitudes ranging from 2,000 
to 6,000 feet and probably even higher; it was never seen in the lowlands. 
While thus apparently specifically distinct from P. torquatus, P. holdereri 
is in all probability a subspecies of P. decolatus; the descriptions of P. berezow- 
skyi Rothschild, suggesting strongly its relationship to decolatus on the one 
side and to holderert on the other. 
The two species, with which we here deal, are easily separated in the adult 
male plumage by the following characters. 
P. HOLDERERI. 
1. White collar always narrow; commonly very incomplete; usually not, though 
sometimes very narrowly connecting behind; sometimes altogether 
wanting. 
2. Head, with no distinct paler superciliaries; crown and occup concolor, 
or very nearly so, with nape. 
3. Wing-coverts, olive-gray. 
4. Rump greener. 
5. Black bands on tail wider. 
6. Size a little larger. 
P. KIANGSUENSIS. 
White collar, always wide, always connecting behind. 
to 
Head with conspicuous whitish superciliaries; crown and occup much 
duller, more brownish, than nape. 
Wing-coverts ashy gray. 
Rump grayer. 
Black bands on tail narrower. 
Sas EN ye 
Size a little smaller. 
The slight difference in size is the only character for the separation of the 
females, and this while it gives good average differences in the two series before 
