Chapter XXVIII. 



PHEASANTS. 



I know of no bird which tempts ornithologists deeper 

 into "The Encyclopsedia Britannica" and similar weighty 

 tomes than the pheasant, the Phasian bird of the sporting 

 Romans. Men delight to wander back to old classical days, 

 to meander with the Phasis river through the meads of 

 Colchis, and so pass from the Caucasus Mountains across the 

 plains of Asia Minor to the shores of the Black Sea; for here, 

 so far as they knew, was the original home of the beautiful 

 birds to which the Phasis gave its name. Then come pages 

 and chapters of history telling of the early days when the 

 pheasant was introduced into Western Europe and so 

 reached England. There is no need for us to add to the 

 army of chroniclers: our object is rather chit-chat than 

 history of the encyclopaedic order. Besides, we are in 

 China, and in a part of China in which Phasianus Colchiciis, 

 the bird which we now somewhat arrogantly call the English 

 pheasant, does not exist, having yielded place this side the 

 ninetieth degree of east longitude, say the meridian of 

 Calcutta, to its first cousin P. torquatus, the gentlemanly 

 bird with the clean white collar. 



No fewer than 23 species of the pheasant family are 

 known to China' and its immediate neighbours. It is true 

 that to sportsmen the word '"pheasant" means, in ninety- 

 nine cases out of a hundred, P. torquatus, but such is the 

 interest taken in this king of sporting birds that the veriest 

 "griffin" is keen to know not only all that can be told about 

 that particular species, but all the family besides, especially if 

 there is the slightest chance that wanderings in China may 

 bring him face to face with them. And as railway construction 

 proceeds, this chance will steadily improve. We shall, 

 therefore, before indulging in any further remarks on the 

 birds already so well known, proceed to mention, with a few 

 necessary comments, the more important species within 

 Celestial borders. There are the so-called " Blood Pheasants" 

 for example (Ithagenes), represented in Tibet, and probably 

 west Szechwan by /. Geoffroyi, a bird which is more a 

 frequenter of trees than the ordinary pheasant is. The name 

 suggests red in the plumage, and it is indeed because of 



