In its Native Swamps. 211 



It has been successfully introduced and reared in our 

 coverts by Colonel Marsden Sunderland, and is a most valuable 

 addition to our coverts, giving size and hardihood to our 

 native birds. The plumage is beautifully spangled with 

 bright purplish black on a rich golden red ground, the white 

 shoulders and dark flight feathers standing out in strong 

 contrast ; but there is no ring around the neck, as in the 

 Chinese pheasant. 



In its habits it differs somewhat from our common species 

 in frequenting swampy ground covered with reeds, returning 

 to the covert to roost at night. In its native habitat it is 

 most abundant. At Masuchak, on the Upper Murghab, in 

 Northern Afghanistan, Major Durand and Major Yate, as 

 recorded in the latter officer's letters from the " Afghan 

 Boundary Commission," brought in a bag of nearly fifty 

 specimens killed during the afternoon. " It is extraordinary," 

 Major Yates remarks, " what a number of pheasants there are 

 in the reed swamps of this valley, and this year they seem to 

 be even more numerous than last. I know of no country in 

 the world where one can get such good real wild-pheasant 

 shooting as this. On the 21st we also brought in a bag of 

 seventy-two pheasants, but, as on the first day, lost a good 

 many wounded birds. The reeds are so thick, and the birds, 

 especially the old cocks, so strong, that it is very hard to bag 

 one's bird even after it is shot." 



Dr. Aitchison, writing of this pheasant in the Transactions 

 of the Liimean Society, says : " The specimens of this pheasant 

 were all got on the banks of the Bala Murghab, where it occurs 

 in considerable numbers in the tamarisk and grass jungle 

 growing in the bed of the river. More than four hundred 

 were killed in the march of thirty miles up this river. It not 

 only wades through the water in trying to make from one 

 point of vantage to another, but swims, and seems to be 

 quite at home in these thickets, where there is always water 

 to the depth of two or three feet. These swampy locaUties 

 afford good shelter. In the mornings and evenings the 



