TRUE PHEASANTS 71 



absolutely indistinguishable from the wild form known as satscheueitsis. Now colchicus 

 hails originally from the region between the Black and the Caspian Seas ; torquatus is 

 a native of extreme south-eastern China, versicolor inhabits Japan, 2s\^pallasi dwells in 

 northern and central Manchuria. From these extreme east, west and northern types 

 the farthest removed, living in the very heart of Central China is satcheuensis. Q.E.D. 



After taking into consideration scores of facts like those I have detailed, I have, 

 without hesitation, arrived at the conclusion already suggested by Lord Rothschild, and 

 in still greater detail by Dr. Ernst Hartert ('' Novitates Zoologicae,'' XXIV, 1917, 

 p. 449). This is to accept the name bestowed by Linnaeus, Phasimius colchicus, and to 

 consider every one of the continental forms of Pkasianus as subspecies of a single 

 species. I even include the bird of Formosa, owing to the fact of its variability, as I 

 have seen individuals taken on that island which differed very appreciably from one 

 another. P. versicolor, in Japan, without question stands the test of a good species, 

 both on account of its radical difference in pattern and colour, and because of its 

 remarkable lack of individual variation. 



I could very easily add a dozen new names to the thirty odd which have been 

 proposed. It would seem, indeed, more logical to call these forms variations or 

 geographic races, while in some cases they are most certainly nothing more than 

 hybrids. But in the interest of simplicity and uniformity I see no need of indicating 

 them as other than subspecies. The most important thing in a case such as this, is to 

 realize that the name colchicus colchicus, as applied to the most western Caspian bird, 

 indicates only the adoption of the priority term given by Linnaeus, and means nothing 

 whatsoever in regard to ancestry or typical characters. P. colchicus hagenbecki, of 

 doubtful distribution, deep in the heart of northern Mongolia, may just as well represent 

 the original centre of evolution of the genus, while colchicus elegans, (slt south within 

 Burmese boundaries, may, for aught we know, most nearly typify ancestral colouring 

 and pattern. A given name, like the disappearance of the sun beneath the horizon, may 

 result in an absolutely false habit of thought. 



The distribution of the wild members of this group extends quite across the 

 continent of Asia at its widest part, from the Sea of Azof and the Black Sea on the 

 west, to the shores of the Japan Sea, almost five thousand miles distant. In Manchuria 

 pheasants reach at least as far as 48° N. Lat., while three or four forms extend southward 

 across the Tropic of Cancer. 



Throughout much of this area the birds have spread into every available valley or 

 along the mountain slopes, sweeping through passes and adapting themselves to semi- 

 arid deserts. They are at home among the bleak boulders and bitter winds of Mongolia 

 and Turkestan, the temperate uplands of Burma, and the flat rice-fields of Eastern 

 China. 



In some districts they are very rare, a single pair of birds seeming to have whole 

 mountain-sides to themselves, while in the Yangtse valley five hundred pheasants may 

 sometimes be seen in the course of a day's ride. They are essentially gregarious, and 

 prefer to feed and roost in company. The broken crow of the cock pheasant is common 

 to every continent, and whether ringing out among the bamboos of Yunnan, the oaks of 

 English uplands, or the maple groves of American countrysides — it is identical and 

 unmistakable. 



