Crossed with P. Colchicus. 179 



the common and the Chinese is a valuable introduction to our 

 preserves, retaining as it does to so great a degree the beauty 

 and early fertility of the pure Chinese race, to which it adds 

 great hardihood and larger size, but the birds are generally 

 regarded as more apt to stray, and some gourmets maintain 

 they are not quite so good a bird on the table as the pure-bred 

 P. colchicus. 



The extent to which the interbreeding of the two species 

 has taken place is well shown in the following interesting 

 account taken from Stevenson's " Birds of Norfolk " : — " In 

 its semi-domesticated state, like our pigeons and poultry, 

 the common pheasant crosses readily with its kindred species, 

 and to so great an extent has this been carried in Norfolk that, 

 except in the wholly unpreserved districts, it is difficult at the 

 present time to find a perfect specimen of the old English type 

 (P. colchicus) without soine traces, however shght, of the ring- 

 neck, and other marked features of the Chinese pheasant 

 (P. torquatus), and in many localities of the Japanese 

 (P- versicolor). In looking over a large number of pheasants 

 from different coverts, as I have frequently done of late years 

 in our fish market, I have noticed every shade of difference 

 from the nearly pure-bred ring-neck, with its buff-coloured 

 flanks and rich tints of lavender and green on the wing 

 and tail-coverts, to the common pheasant in its brilliant 

 but less varied plumage, with but one feather in its 

 glossy neck just tipped with a speck of white. Some 

 birds of the first cross are scarcely distinguishable 

 from the true P. torquatus, and are most, gorgeous objects 

 when flushed in the sunlight on open ground ; but as 

 the ' strain ' gradually dies out, the green and lavender 

 tints on the back begin to fade, and the rich orange 

 flanks are toned down by degrees ; though still the most marked 

 feature of all, the white ring on the neck, descends from one 

 generation to another, and the hybrid origin of the bird is thus 

 apparent long after every other trace of its mixed parentage 

 has entirely passed away." 



N 2 



