180 PHEASANTS FOB OOVUBTS AND AVIARIES. 



in the Zoological Gardens, Eegent's Park. Mr. Medhurst 

 was anxious that Her Majesty the Queen should have early- 

 possession of specimens of Phasianus reevesii ; and, in com- 

 pliance with his wish, one male and two females were offered 

 to and graciously accepted by Her Majesty. Since the 

 successful reintroduction of these birds they have bred freely 

 both in confinement and at large in England and on the 

 Continent, and are now to be purchased at the dealers. 



With regard to the distribution of this bird in China, Mr. 

 Saurin remarks : — " The Reeves's pheasant, called by the 

 Chinese Ghi-Chi, is very rarely seen in the Pekin market. 

 For a long time I failed to discover from what quarter they 



came Last winter I ascertained, however, that they 



came from the Tang-lin ; and I have reason to suppose that 

 they are to be found nowhere else in the province of Chi-U. 

 About twenty birds were brought down alive last winter. 

 They are never brought in frozen or by Mongols. Their flesh 

 is very delicious, and superior, to my taste, to that of any 

 other pheasant." 



The general character of the plumage of the Reeves's 

 ■pheasant is well shown in the illustration. The head is 

 covered by a cowl of white, surrounded by a band of black, 

 with a spot of white under the eye ; the neck has a broad 

 ring of white J the feathers of the back and upper part of the 

 breast are of a brilliant golden yellow, margined with black ; 

 those of the lower part of the breast are white, each one 

 presenting bands of black more or less irregular in their 

 arrangement ; the under parts of the body are deep black ; 

 the tail is formed of eighteen feathers, which are closely 

 folded together, so that the entire tail appears narrow ; at the 

 broadest part the feathers are about 2in. in breadth ; the 

 ground colour of each tail feather is greyish-white in the 

 centre, and golden red at the edges, and crossed with crescent- 

 shaped bars, which vary in number according to the length of 

 the feather, in the longest feathers being considerably more 

 than fifty. 



