96 PHEASANTS ADAPTED FOR THE COVERT. 



most marked feature of all, the white ring on the neck, descends from one generation 

 to another, and the hyhrid origin of the hird is thus apparent long after every other 

 trace of its mixed parentage has entirely passed away." 



The Chinese pheasant has been introduced into several parts of the globe with 

 success. The rapidity of its increase in New Zealand has already been noticed. As 

 long since as the year 1513 it was acclimatised in the island of St. Helena ander 

 very peculiar circumstances, as related by Brookes in his history of the island. 

 Fernandez Lopez, having deserted from the army of A. Albuquerque at Goa, was 

 exUed, along with a number of negroes, and banished to St. Helena, being supplied 

 with roots, seeds, poultry, and pheasants for turning out. These were of the species 

 now under consideration. Berries and seeds being abundant in the island, the birds 

 became wild, throve amazingly, and on the visit of Capt. Cavendish ia 1588 he 

 found them in great abundance and admirable condition. In 1875 we are informed, 

 in MelHss's " St. Helena," " that they still exist abundantly, and quite maintain the 

 characteristics mentioned by Cavendish. They are protected by game laws, which 

 permit them to be killed, on payment of the licences, for six weeks in the summer 

 or autumn of each year, and hundreds of them are generally killed during one 

 shooting season. They find plenty of covert, and generally make their nests in the 

 long tufty fields of cow- grass {Faspalvm serobiculattmi)." Mr. Elliot informs us 

 that the present representatives differ somewhat from their ancestors in the coloured 

 markings of the plumage, a result doubtless owing to the influence of a change of 

 climate acting through many generations. Possibly one infl.uence may be due to 

 the change of diet. We are informed by Mr. J. English Torbett that the ripe seeds 

 of the Calla cethiopica, so common as a greenhouse plant in this country, are much 

 sought after by the pheasants in St. Helena, and that it forms a large portion of 

 their food. 



The characters of this species were given in minute detail by the late 

 Mr. Gould, in his magnificent folio, " The Birds of Asia "; they are as follows : — 

 "The male has the forehead deep green; crown of the head fawn colour, glossed 

 with green ; over each eye a conspicuous streak of buffy white ; the naked papillated 

 skin of the orbits and sides of the face deep scarlet or blood red, interspersed 

 beneath the eye with a series of very minute black feathers ; horn-like tufts on each 

 side of the head; throat and neck rich deep, shining green, with violet reflections; 

 near the base of the neck a conspicuous collar of shining white feathers, narrow 

 before and behind, and broadly dilated at the sides; the feathers of the back of the 

 neck black, with a narrow mark of white down the centre of the back portion, and 

 a large lengthened mark of oohreous yellow within the, edge of each web near the 

 tip; the feathers of back and scapularies black at the base, with a streak of white 

 in the middle, then buff surrounded with a distinct narrow band of black, to which 

 succeeds an outer fringe of chesnut; feathers of the back black, with numerous 



