BIANCHI'S PHEASANT 



Phasianus colchictis bianchii Buturlin 



Names.— Subspecific : bianchii, after Dr. V. L. Bianchi, a Russian ornithologist. English : Bianchi's or 

 Upper Oxus Pheasant. 



TYPE.—Locality : Upper parts of Oxus Basin. Describer : Buturlin. Place of Description: Ibis, 1904, 

 p. 393. 



Subspecific Characters.— Like chrysomelas but with black margins of breast feathers wider, the black 

 dominating the coppery red on the visible parts of the feathers. 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION 



Valley of the Upper Oxus. Messrs. Grum-Grzimailo met it during their travels 

 in 1885 in the mountains of Bokhara, in the valleys of Kafirnagan (Dschidda-bach) and 

 Wachsch (Kurgan-Tjube). On the north, east and south the range of this pheasant is 

 bounded by ranges of high mountains, the Gissar, Alai, Pamir and Hindu Kush 

 respectively. Its range along the Oxus downstream is not known, nor its exact relation 

 with zarudnyi. 



SYNONYMY 



(?) Phasianus chrysomelas Bianchi, Zur Ornis der westlichen Auslaiifer des Pamir und des Alai, in Mel. biol. 

 XII. 1886, p. ^yy (Kafirnagan, Wachsch.) ; (?) Zarudny, Orn. Faun. Transcasp., 1896, p. 480 (? partim, Karki). 

 Phasianus chrysomelas bianchii Buturlin, Ibis, 1904, p. 393 (Upper Oxus) ; Buturlin, Ibis, 1908, p, 585, 589. 

 Phasianus colchicus bianchii Hartert, Nov. Zool. XXIV. 1917, p. 450. 



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