YELLOW-NECKED KOKLASS PHEASANT 



Pucrasia xanthospila xanthospila Gray 



Names. — Specific : xanthospila, Gk. ^av96^, yellow, crrjlXoq, spot, yellow-spotted. English : Yellow-necked 

 or Northern China Koklass ; Yellow-spotted Pucras. French : Pucrasia a cache jaune. Native : Song-ky 

 (Pine-fowl, Chinese). 



Brief Description. — Male: Head, neck and ventral chestnut much as in macrolopha ; a conspicuous 

 collar of yellow ; the general plumage pattern of macrolopha of a single, central black stripe is changed in xantho- 

 spila, the stripe being divided into two by a grey shaft-stripe ; outer tail-feathers pearl grey crossed with a black 

 bar ; a subterminal band of black and a white tip. Female : resembles the female of macrolopha, except for outer 

 tail-feathers, which are like those of the male. 



Range. — From central Szechuan north-east to Pekin. 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION 



Although the range of this species is given as north-western China, extending into 

 Manchuria and eastern Tibet, I can find no definite records for the extremes here 

 included. I found the bird within one hundred and fifty miles of Pekin, and specimens 

 have been recorded from Kansu and as far west as Tatsienlu in Szechuan (lat. N. 30° - 

 long. W. 102°). So until we learn more of the vast region included between these two 

 localities, over a thousand miles apart, it would be idle to do more than connect them 

 with an indefinite line, extending along the general mountain ranges. 



GENERAL ACCOUNT 



P^re David's few observations on the Yellow-necked Koklass still comprise almost 

 a summary of our knowledge of this species. He says, vaguely enough, that the birds 

 keep chiefly to the forests and undergrowth, and in these places they occur singly or in 

 pairs. Their food consists of grain and the seeds of conifers, and their flesh is delicious 

 eating, with sometimes an aromatic odour, being superior to that of the other pheasants 

 of this region. 



Several authors mention this Koklass as being brought to the markets of Pekin 

 regularly, but in fewer numbers than the true pheasants {Phasianus). Saurin says they 

 are often brought alive and never frozen, and the fact that the men who have these in 

 their possession are Chinese, and not Mongols, would seem to indicate that the birds 

 are not found beyond the mountains which enclose China proper on the north. 



Late in the winter when I visited Pekin the most thorough search in the markets 

 brought to light only two bedraggled cock Koklass, whose crops were empty and whose 

 bodies were so far gone in dissolution that it was impossible to test the assertion as to 

 the deliciousness of their flesh. As the plague had been raging a few weeks before, 

 there were almost no pheasants of any kind to be had. 



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