THE CHINESE PHEASANT. I7I 



perfectly fertile^ not only with either })iii-u race, but also 

 nitrr sr. I'liey are, howtiver, varialile in |.)luniage, the aino\iiit 

 <if white in the neck vai'yiny from f(]nr or five feathers to a 

 nearly complete circle, and the feathers on the flanks being- 

 iiitertnecliate between the beautiful spotted V>uff of the pure 

 ('liinese and the dark colour of the common bird. Those 

 I'liig-necks arc now comunm in most parts of the country 

 where pheasants are |)i-eserveil. The uood points of the 

 Chinese are lai'gely shared by their ha,lf-bred progeny; hein;e 

 the cross between the common and the Chinese is a valualjle 

 iutrodnction to our preserves, retaining as it does to so great 

 a degree the beauty and t'arly fertility of the pure Chinese 

 race, to which it adds great hardihood and larger size, but the 

 birds are generallv regarded as more apt to strav, and some 

 gourmets maintain they are not quite so good a bird on the 

 table as the piure-bred P. rnlcliicii,',-. 



The extent to which the interbi-eeding of the two species 

 has taken place is well shown in the following iutei'esting 

 account taken from Stevenson's " Birds of Norfolk": — "In 

 its semi-domesticated state, like our jiigeons and poultry, 

 the common jdieasant crosses readily with its kindred species, 

 and to so great an extent has this been carried in N(n'folk 

 that, except in the wholly uiipreservcd districts, it is difficult 

 at the present time t(} find a perfect specimen of the old 

 English t\'pe (P. (■(ilrhiciix) without some ti'aces, however 

 slight, of the I'ing-neck, and other marked features of the 

 Chinese pheasant (/' forijiiut iis], and m many localiiies of the 

 -lapanese (P n-T>.-ic<iIor). In looking over a large number of 

 ])heasants from different covei'ts, as T have frecpiently done of 

 late years in our fish market, I have noticed every shade of 

 difference from the nearly pure-bred ring-neck, with its butf- 

 colonred flanks and rich tints of lavcndei', and green on the 

 wing a,nd tail-cuverts, to the common pheasant in its linlliant 

 but less varied plumage, with but one feather in its glossy 

 neck pisc tipped with a speck of white. Some bii-ds of 

 tilt; hrst cross are scarcelv ilisting'uishalile from the true 



