CHAPTEE XII. 



PHEASANTS ADAPTED TO THE COVERT 

 (CONTINUED). 



THE CHINESE PHEASANT {PHA8IANU8 

 T0RQUATU8). 



^ONSUL SWINHOE, Mr. Dudley E. Saurin, Pere 

 David, Prjevalski, and other naturalists, who have 

 investigated the fauna of the Chinese empire, 

 unite in confirming the belief that this pheasant 

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

 abounding 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 devastation 

 of the country by the Tai-pings, 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 Hussian 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 veiy common near Hankow, 

 and at all the places that have been visited by Europeans 

 north of the Yangtze. Formosa swarms with these birds ; 

 the specimens found there, however, differ from those of the 



