CHAPTER XI. 



PHEASANTS ADAPTED FOR THE COVEET (CONTINUED). 



THE CHINESE PHEASANT {FMASIANJJS TOBQUATUS) 



AND ALLIED RACES. 



iONSTJL SWINHOE, Mr. Dudley E. Saurin, Pere David, and 

 other nattiralists, wlio liave recently investigated the fauna of the 

 Chinese empire, unite in confirming the helief that this pheasant 

 (P. torquatus) is the most common species in China, ahoundiag 

 in vast numbers in the hill coverts and cotton fields. Mr. Saurin 

 states : " The common Chinese pheasant is found everywhere in the 

 north of China. I am not aware how much further south they are 

 found than Shanghai ; but in that neighbourhood, since the devasta- 

 tion of the country by the Tai-puigs, they are shot by hundreds. 

 Thousands are brought down to the Pekin market in a frozen state by the 

 Mongols, from as far north as the Amour. At the new Russian port of Poussiet, 

 conterminous with the Corea, the same pheasant abounds. I myself have seen 

 them wild in the Imperial hunting grounds north of Jehol, and in the mountains 

 near Ku-peh-kow." 



Consul Swinhoe says that it is very common near Hankow, and at all the 

 places that have been visited by Europeans north of the Yangtze. Pormosa 

 swarms with these birds ; the specimens found there, however, differ from those of 

 the typical race by having the ochreous feathers on the flanks exceedingly pale, 

 and the eye nearly white. 



The specific name torquatm is derived from torquis, a chain or collar, worn' 

 around the neck. This species was introduced into England a great many years 

 since, long before the time of Latham, who described it as having been turned 

 out in preserves on many estates. No birds coiild be better adapted for our coverts; 

 being natives of a cold part of China, they are very hardy — a character which 

 they display by laying early in the season, and by producing an abundant supply 

 of eggs. The species is of smaller size than the common pheasant, its extreme 



