102 PHBASAl^TS ADAPTED FOE THE COVERT. 



mongrels, which increase so rapidly that Mr. Gould considers in twenty years' time 

 it wiU be difficult to find a true species in this country. This, however, he regards 

 as of little moment, as fresh birds can always be obtained from their native 

 countries, Asia Minor, China, and Japan. AU naturaKsts, however, are not of Mr. 

 Gould's opinion. Mr. Blyth informed me that the P. versicolor and P. torquatm 

 are kept distinct in two neighbouring copses at Lord Craven's, not intermixing, 

 although at a comparatively short distance from each other, and that he believes, 

 although these species wiU cross when in confinement, that in the open country 

 the birds of each species would select their proper mates and produce pure bred 

 offspring. 



The cross between the Japanese and common pheasant is a bird of briUiant 

 plumage, easy to rear, of greater size than the average of EngKsh birds, and the 

 flesh is very tender and well flavoured. In Norfolk this very beautiful cross was 

 introduced some few years back by Mr. J. H. Gurney, who bred most successfully, 

 both at Easton and Northrepps, from the birds he obtained at the Knowsley sale 

 and the common pheasant (though chiefly with the ring-necked cross), and produced 

 magnificent specimens ; the eggs being greatly sought after by other game preservers 

 in this district, the race soon spread throughout the county. "Erom personal 

 observation and inquiry, however," writes Mr. Stevenson, " during the last two 

 or three years, it appears evidences of this cross, even in the coverts where these 

 hybrids were most plentiful, are now scarcely perceptible; the strong characteristics 

 of the Chinese bird apparently absorbing all the less marked, though darker tiats of 

 the Japanese. One of these birds, killed in 1853, weighed upwards of four and a 

 half pounds, and many examples, which were stuffed for the beauty of their 

 plumage, will be found in the collections of our country gentlemen." 



The absorption of the Japanese in the more common race is not surprising, 

 when the small interfusion of new blood is taken iato consideration, but with the 

 fresh introduction of new blood, and the care in the preservation of the cross-bred 

 birds, there can be no doubt a permanent breed would result, bearing the same 

 relation to the pure bred Japanese that the common ring-neck does to the pure 

 blooded Chinese species. 



