STEVENSON ON JAPANESE PHEASANT. 167 



difficult to find a true species in this country. This, however, 

 he regarded as of little moment, as fresh birds can always be 

 obtained from their native countries, Asia Minor, China, and 

 Japan. All naturalists, however, are not of Mr. Gould's 

 opinion. The late Mr. Blyth informed me that P. versicolor 

 and P. torquatus kept themselves distinct in two neighbouring 

 copses at Lord Craven's, not intermixing, although at a 

 comparatively short distance from each other, and that he 

 believed, although these races will cross when in confinement, 

 that in the open country the birds of each would select their 

 proper mates and produce pure bred offspring, an opinion 

 which I regard as exceedingly doubtful. 



The cross between the Japanese and common pheasant is 

 a bird of brilliant plumage, easy to rear, of greater size than 

 the average of English birds, and the fiesh 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 ; and from the 

 eggs being greatly sought after by other game preservers in 

 his district, the race soon spread throughout the county. 

 " From 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 per- 

 ceptible ; the strong characteristics of the Chinese bird 

 apparently absorbing all the less marked though darker 

 tints 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 



