128 A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 



for their non-observance. Under the law any coolie killing anything in the nature 

 of game is liable to very severe punishment, and the killing of big game by 

 those not authorized to do so is rewarded by decapitation. There were regular 

 imperial huntsmen who were allowed to kill only a certain number of head in each 

 district per year, and the killing of females was strictly prohibited. Hunting for big 

 game and hawking for small game were reserved as imperial and princely pastimes. 

 As things are at present, the birds are not protected from the most indiscriminate 

 slaughter. 



Pheasants are taken in many ways, the commonest being a very simple, but 

 efficient, snare — a horse-hair loop fastened to a bit of bent bamboo. Nets of great 

 extent are stretched across the sides of a field and the birds ingeniously driven beneath 

 them, and then suddenly rushed, and flushed into the meshes. 



Hens are captured alive, and at the approach of the breeding season are fastened 

 by a short string to a stake. Food is scattered about just out of reach, and the hen in 

 her efforts to reach the food cackles and waves her wings, thus attracting any cocks in 

 the vicinity, who are shot one after the other, as they approach. 



Ring-necked Pheasants are sold in all the treaty ports, chiefly to foreigners. In 

 season they are sold openly, but where prohibited by local market regulations, they are 

 sold and eaten as ''Shantung Chickens," a very thin disguise for the Chinese name 

 Shan Chi. Recently enormous numbers have been bought up by the agents of refrigerated 

 ships, frozen and taken to Europe by the thousand. In November and December, 

 from 48,000 to 60,000 pheasants are thus shipped from Hankow alone. 



In some districts the Chinese seem to believe in a kind of dust spirit which can 

 pass from a live pheasant when handled by a human being, and which has the power 

 of producing a fatal illness, accompanied by coughing and fever. Dead birds may be 

 handled without fear of this catastrophe. On the other hand, in certain parts of 

 Shantung and Chili and the Chekiang hill districts, pheasants haunting the great extent 

 of graveyards are thought to be the receptacles for the spirits of departed ancestors. 

 The natives object strenuously to the shooting of birds in these places, and will steal 

 and hide any wounded or dead birds which the hunter overlooks. 



SYNONYMY 



Var. a, Ring Pheasant Lath., Gen. Syn., II. pt. ii, 1783, p. 715 ; Lath., Suppl, I. 1787, p. 208 ; Lath., Gen. 

 Hist., VIII. 1823, p. 190. 



Ri?ig Pheasant Hayes, Osterl. Menag., 1794, p. 57, pis. 57, 58 (Hybrid). 



Phasianus torquatus Gmel, S. N., I. pt. ii, 1788, p. 742; Temm., Pig. et Gall, II. 1813, p. 326; Temm., 

 Pig. et Gall., III. 1815, p. 670; Leach, Zool. Misc., II. 1815, p. 13, pi. 66; Vieill., N. Diet. d'Hist. Nat, XL 

 1817, p. 38; Steph., in Shaw's Gen. Zool., XI. 1819, p. 228; Griff., ed. Cuv., III. 1829, p. 22, pi; Gu^rin- 

 Meneville, Icon. R^g. Anim. Ois., 1829-38, p. 25, pi 42, fig. i; Less., Trait6 d'Orn., 1831, p. 495; Jard., Nat. 

 Lib. Orn., IV. 1834, p. 189, pi XIII. (Hybrid); J. E. Gray, 111. Ind. Orn., II. 1834, pi 41, fig. i ; G. R. Gray, 

 List Birds, pt. iii. Gall, 1844, p. 23 ; Gray, Gen. Birds, III. 1845, p. 497; Blyth, Cat. Mus. As. Soc, 1849, p. 245 ; 

 Gould, Birds Asia, VII. 1856, pi 39; Schrenck, Reisen Amur-land, I. 1859, p. 402 ; Swinhoe, Ibis, 1861, p. 49 

 (Hongkong), p. 341 (Pe-chi-li) ; Sclat. and Wolf. Zool Sketches, I. 1861, pi 37; Lamprey, Proc. Zool Soc. 

 London, 1862, p. 221 (Shanghai) ; Swinhoe, Ibis, 1862, p. 259 (Foochow) ; Radde, Ost-Sib. II. 1863, p. 302 ; Sclater, 

 List Phas., 1863, p. 4; Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1863, p. 116; Swinhoe, Ibis, 1863, p. 481 ; Swinhoe, Proc. 

 Zool Soc. London, 1863, p. 307 ; Milne-Edwards, N. Arch. Mus. Bull, I. 1865, p. 14; Swinhoe, Ibis, 1865, p. 349; 

 Saurin, Proc. Zool Soc. London, 1866, p. 436 (Amour, N, China, Corea) ; Swinhoe, Ibis, 1867, pp. 390, 402 

 (Cheefoo); David, N. Arch. Mus. Bull, III. 1867, p. 37 (Mongolia); Gray, List Gall Brit. Mus., 1867, p. 27; 

 Dybowski, Jour, fiir Orn., 1868, p. 337; David, Proc. Zool Soc. London, 1868, p. 210; Gray, Hand-list Birds, II. 



