KWEICHOW PHEASANT 



Phasimius colchicus decollatus Swinhoe 



Names.— Subspecific : decollatus, uncollared, or lacking a collar. English : Kweichow, or Chinese Ringless 

 Pheasant. 



Type.— Locality : Chungkin in Szechuan, Describer : Swinhoe. Place of Description : Proc. Zool. Soc. 

 London, 1870, p. 135. 



Subspecific Characters. — Close to torguatus, but with white collar usually wholly absent ; the crown is 

 dark green instead of pale bronze green, and the margins of the chest-feathers very broad and dark green instead 

 of purple. Near the Ichang gorges, in the Yangtze, where this form approaches the range of torquatus, traces of 

 the white collar become visible. The female resembles straiichi, but the black patches on the scapulars, wing- 

 coverts and lower back are larger and more strongly marked. 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION 



The south-central Chinese provinces of Kweichow, Western Hunan and Kwangsi, 

 Eastern Yunnan, and Szechuan as far as Tatsienlu. Four birds have been secured in 

 northern Tongking. 



GENERAL ACCOUNT 



Pratt in Szechuan tells us that this pheasant is found on the grassy slopes on the 

 spurs of the mountains up to an elevation of 9,000 feet. It avoids the forest regions, 

 preferring bushy fields, and in confinement it always roosted on the ground. 

 Blackwelder found newly hatched chicks at Tahopa on 7th of May. 



SYNONYMY 



Phasianus decollatus Swinhoe, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1870, p. 135 (Sze-chuen) ; Elliot, Proc. Zool. Soc. 

 London, 1870, p. 408; Swinhoe, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1871, p. 398 ; David, N. Arch. Mus. Bull., VII. 1871, 

 p. II (Sze-cheun] ; Elliot, Mono. Phas., II. 1872, pi. vii. (text) ; David et Oustalet, Ois. Chine, 1877, p. 411, pi. 100 

 (partim, cum Phasianus berezowskyi) ; Seebohm, Ibis, 1888, p. 314; Seebohm, Ibis, 1891, p. 380; Grant, Cat. 

 Birds Brit. Mus., XXII. 1893, p. 331 ; Grant, Hand-book Game-birds, II. 1897, p. 28; Sharpe, Hand-list Birds, 

 Vol. I. 1899, P- 38; Dresser, Manual Palae. Birds, 1903, p. 663; Buturlin, Ibis, 1904, p. 409; Blackwelder, 

 Research in China, Vol. I., pt. ii, p. 489. 



Phasianus colchicus decollatus Hartert, Nov. Zool., XXIV. 1917, p. 452. 



Ill 



