BIRDS COLLECTED IN JAPAN. 225 



by a leaden shower from my fowling piece. Suddenly the birds showed signs of uneasiness, and 

 I soon discovered the cause in a Japanese root-digger coming from the opposite direction. I 

 therefore took up my gun, and standing on my feet, raised the birds also, and as they flew 

 towards the next hill, I had the good fortune to bring down the cock with one barrel of my gun, 

 and one of the hens with the other. 



" The Japanese, who came up after I had loaded my gun and secured my game, looked with 

 some astonishment at the stranger, for I was certainly the first foreigner who had been in 

 pursuit of game on the hunting grounds of Niphon. He evidently asked me severil questions, 

 which I was not, of course, able to understand, but from his signs, and the frequent repetition 

 of the word statzoo, (two,) I inferred that he inquired whether I had fired twice in such quick 

 succession with one gun. I nodded and explained to him as well as I could the nature of my 

 double-barrelled gun, and the use of percussion caps, which seemed to astonish and delight him 

 very much. A pipe of tobacco which I offered was gladly accepted ; and in answer to a ques- 

 tion that he appeared to understand, he gave me the name of the pheasant as Ki-zhi. 



"Later in the day more people came to the hills, some for the purpose of digging roots, 

 others to look after their cattle, which appeared to be turned out to graze on the hills. The 

 birds had taken to the bushes, where I could not follow them, and so obtained no more specimens 

 on that occasion. 



' ; A few days after, Lieutenants Bent and Nicholson and myself made another shooting 

 excursion to the hills, but although we saw many pheasants but a single specimen was shot, 

 and the birds appeared to be very shy. We observed several Japanese with matchlocks about 

 the hills, firing away at a great rate. As we did not see either of them with game, and as the 

 game laws of Japan are very severe, so much so, indeed, that their observance has been made a 

 special article of the treaty with the United States, I concluded that the firing was only for the 

 purpose of driving away the pheasants to places where they would be more secure from the 

 strangers." 



PHASIANUS SOEMMERING1I, Temminck. 



Phasianus Soemmerinqii, Temm. pi. col. V, liv. 82, (about 1828.) 



Plate 2. — Male and Female. 



This is undoubtedly the most beautiful of all the true pheasants, and will compare in richness 

 and brilliancy of color with almost any other species of bird. In the adult male, the neck and 

 back are of a deep golden-red, with a metallic lustre of great beauty ; but, as will appear from 

 our plate, the female is exceedingly plain and unpretending. 



Like the preceding, the present is only known as a bird of Japan, and but few years have 

 elapsed since it was first introduced to the attention of naturalists by the celebrated Professor 

 Temminck, well known as the most distinguished of European ornithologists. It appears to 

 inhabit the same districts of country as the preceding species, and to subsist on much the same 

 description of food ; but we regret to say that the gentlemen of the expedition had no oppor- 

 tunity for observing this species to such extent as to enable us to make any important contribu- 

 tion to its history. 



Nothing having previously been published in relation to this beautiful pheasant, we have 

 exerted ourselves to obtain all available information, and have great pleasure in again 

 acknowledging our obligations to Mr. Heine, the accomplished artist of the expedition, for 

 the following note: 



29 s 



