TSAIDAM PHEASANT 



Phasianus colchicus vlangalii Przewalski 



Names.— Subspecific : vlangalii, after M. E. Vlangali, Russian Ambassador to China. English : Tsaidam 

 Pheasant, after the great marshes, the native home of the bird. 



Type.— Locality : Tsaidam. Describer: Przewalski. Place of Description: Mongolia, II. pt. ii, 1876, 

 p. 116. 



Subspecific Characters.— From elegans on the south, the male bird differs in the mantle and scapulars 

 being sandy red, and the sides and flanks golden buff, instead of dull orange red with a gloss of purple. In the 

 female the upper plumage resembles that oi colchicus, but below, the colour is pale buff. 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION 



Eastern Tsaidam, extending northward to the Koko-nor Mountains and to the 

 outlying slopes of the Tolai-Ula and Burkhan-Budda Ranges. 



GENERAL ACCOUNT 



Przewalski writes of the Tsaidam Pheasant : " We found this bird in Tsaidam, where 

 it inhabits the cane-groves and bush-covered localities. In autumn and winter it feeds 

 principally on berries, which it eats while sitting on the branches, and at that time 

 especially is very wild and wary. It does not differ in voice from P. torquatus, and 

 begins to breed very early in spring. We have heard it as early as the 13th of 

 February." 



SYNONYMY 



Phasianus vlangalii Prjewalski, Mongolia, II. pt. ii, 1876, p. 116; Prjewalski, Rowley's Ornith. Missell., II. 

 1877, p. 386 ; Prjewalski, Reisen in Tibet, 1885, p. 59 (Tsaidam) ; Seebohm, Ibis, 1888, p. 315 ; Grant, Cat. Birds 

 Brit. Mus., XXII. 1893, p. 330; Grant, Hand-book Game-birds, II. 1897, p. 30 ; Kozlow, Res. I.R.G.S. Exped. 

 C. Asia, II. 1899, pp. 188, 218, 286 ; Sharp, Hand-list Birds, Vol. I. 1899, P- 38 ) Dresser, Manual Palae. Birds, 

 1903, p. 664; Buturlin, Ibis, 1904, p. 412. 



Phasianus colchicus vlangalii Rothschild, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, XIV. 1904, p. 37 ; Hartert, Nov. Zool., 

 XXIV. 1917, p. 452. 



VOL. in 105 



