CHAPTER XI. 
PHEASANTS ADAPTED FOR THE COVERT (CONTINUED). 
THE CHINESE PHEASANT (PHASIANUS TORQUATUS) 
Aye AND ALLIED RACES. 
-ONSUL SWINHOE, Mr. Dudley EH. Saurin, Pére David, and 
other naturalists, who have recently investigated the fauna of the 
Chinese empire, unite in confirming the belief that this pheasant 
(P. torquatus) is the most common species in China, abounding 
in vast numbers in the hill coverts and cotton fields. Mr. Saurin 
states: “The common Chinese pheasant is found everywhere in the 
north of China. I am not aware how much further south they are 
: 7 found than Shanghai; but in that neighbourhood, since the devasta- 
tion of the country by the Tai-pings, they are shot by hundreds. 
Thousands are brought down to the Pekin market in a frozen state by the 
Mongols, from as far north as the Amour. At the new Russian port of Poussiet, 
conterminous with the Corea, tie same pheasant abounds. I myself have seen 
them wild in the Imperial hunting grounds north of Jehol, and in the mountains 
near Ku-pebh-kow.” 
Consul Swinhoe says that it is very common near Hankow, and at all the 
places that have been visited by Europeans north of the Yangtze. Formosa 
swarms with these birds; the specimens found there, however, differ from those of 
the typical race by having the ochreous feathers on the flanks Se pale, 
and the eye nearly white. 
The specific name torquatus is derived from torquis, a chain or collar worn 
around the neck. ‘This species was introduced into England a great many years 
since, long before the time of Latham, who described it as having been turned 
out in preserves on many estates. No birds could be better adapted for our coverts; 
being natives of a cold part of China, they are very hardy—a character which 
they display by laying early in the season, and by producing an abundant supply 
of eggs. The species is of smaller size than the common pheasant, its extreme 
T ie 
