HEINE ON SCEMMEBBING'S PHEASANT. 171 



male the neck and back are of a deep golden red, with a 

 metallic lustre of great beauty, but the female is exceedingly 

 plain and unpretending. 



" Like the Versicolor, the present is only known as a bird 

 of Japan; and but few years have elapsed since it was first 

 introduced to the attention of naturalists by the celebrated 

 Professor Temminck, well known as the most distinguished of 

 European ornithologists. It appears to inhabit the same 

 districts of country as the Versicolor, and to subsist on much 

 the same description of food ; but we regret to say that the 

 gentlemen of the expedition had no opportunity for observing 

 this species to such an extent as to enable us to make any 

 important contribution to its history. 



"Nothing having previously been published in relation to 

 this beautiful pheasant, we have exerted ourselves to obtain 

 all available information, and have great pleasure in again 

 acknowledging our obligations to Mr. Heine, the accomplished 

 artist of the expedition, for the following note : 



" ' On one of my excursions I came very suddenly upon 

 another species of pheasant, of very beautiful colours, and 

 with a very long tail. Being in the midst of briars, and in 

 an inconvenient position, I missed him, or at least did not 

 injure him further than to shoot off his two long tail feathers. 



" ' Returning on board in the evening, I found that our 

 chaplain, the Rev. George Jones, had purchased a pheasant 

 of the same kind from a Japanese root-digger in the hills. It 

 was not wounded, or otherwise injured, and seemed to have 

 been either caught in a trap or found dead. To my inquiries 

 of the Japanese Dutch interpreter, whether these birds were 

 ever hunted, I could obtain but evasive answers ; but if, 

 however, such is the case, the right is undoubtedly reserved 

 to the princes and nobility. 



" ' It appears that both these kinds of pheasants inhabit 

 similar localities, and are abundant over the southern and the 

 middle parts of the island of Nipon, for even during my 

 rambles in the vicinity of Yokuhama, in the Bay of Yeddo 



