184 The Japanese Pheasant. 



back, with a small oval deep spot of deep glossy green close 

 to the tip ; primaries and secondaries light brown, irregularly 

 barred with buff, and with buffy shafts ; tertiaries dark brown, 

 broadly edged with hnS on their inner webs, and mottled with 

 dull pale chesnut on the outer web, the edge of which is buff ; 

 tail dark brown, mottled with buff, and black on the edges, 

 and crossed by narrow irregular bands of buff, bordered on 

 either side with blotches of dark brown ; on the lateral feathers 

 the lighter edges nearly disappear and the bands assume a 

 more irregular form ; throat buff ; all the remainder of the 

 under-surface buff, with a large, irregular, arrowhead-shaped 

 mark near the top of each feather ; thigh similar, but with the 

 dark mark nearly obsolete." 



The habits of the Japanese pheasant in its native country 

 were first described by Mr. Heine, the naturalist attached to 

 the American expedition to Japan, and the following obser- 

 vations by him were published in Commodore Perry's " Japan 

 Expedition," 1856 : — " After the treaty of Yokohama had been 

 concluded the United States squadron proceeded to Simoda. 

 A friendly intercourse with the natives was established, and 

 I constantly availed myself of Commodore Perry's kind 

 permission to make additions to our collection in natural 

 history. One morning, at dawn of day, I shouldered my gun 

 and landed in search of specimens of birds, and that day had 

 the good fortune to see, for the first time, the versicolor pheasant. 

 The province Idza, at the southern extremity of which the 

 port of Simoda is situated, forms a long neck of land extending 

 from the island of Niphon, in a southerly direction, and is 

 throughout mountainous, some of the mountains being from 

 4000 to 5000 feet high. The valleys are highly cultivated, 

 presenting in the spring a most luxurious landscape. The tops 

 of the mountains and hills are in some places composed of barren 

 rocks, and in others covered with grass and shrubs, producing 

 an abundance of small berries. Between those higher regions 

 and the fields below the slopes are covered with woods, having, 

 for the greater part, such thick undergrowth that it is scarcely 



