9. 



22 



Obs. According to Mr. Zarudny (Rech. Zool. Contr. Transcasp. p. 108) " these Pheasants differ considerably, 

 inter se, in weight and size. The largest were met with near Lake A'iaa-Gueul, in the neighbourhood 

 of the village of Topasse (in the Merv oasis), and in the vicinity of Meroutchak. In some males the 

 feathers on the neck have, near the end, a white band which exhibits a tendency to a white collar, but 

 it is not visible, being hidden by the green ends of the neighbouring feathers. This collar rarely 

 extends round the neck, and is always more developed on the hinder portion." And he further adds 

 (op. cit. p. 1 57) that " the Pheasants from the banks of the Tedgend differ from those from the banks 

 of the Murghab; the former have the long feathers on the sides of the abdomen, and those on the 

 posterior portion of the throat, chiefly margined, not with violet-blue as is the case with those from the 

 Murghab, but with deep green. In this respect the bird from the banks of the Tedgend approaches 

 P. chrysomelas, in which these feathers are deep green." 



The present species, which is perhaps the most beautiful of those closely allied to our European 

 Pheasant, inhabits Transcaspia and Afghanistan, ranging, according to Mr. Ogilvie Grant, into 

 North-eastern Persia. 



According to Mr. Zarudny (Bull. Soc. Mosc. iii. p. 813) it " inhabits the basins of the 

 Murghab, Tedgend, the Douchak Kaakh, and along the small rivers filled with rush eyots 

 which flow from the Dereguez and Kelat Mountains towards the north and north-east to the 

 low Aralo-Caspian plain. It is also equally numerous along the Alikhanoff canal, and 

 penetrates to the oasis of Merv. In summer it frequents the plains of the Tedgend and the 

 central part of the Murghab, and is found sometimes in places covered with tamarisks, and 

 sometimes in open spots overgrown with alchagis and other plants. In the Merv and Pinde 

 oases it affects places where there is grass and but few bushes, situated amongst the rush eyots 

 near the cornfields. I cannot quite fix the time when the crow of this Pheasant is first heard, 

 but I have seen them crowing with the throat puffed out between the 1st and 12th of May. On 

 the banks of the Douchak the call-note may be heard from the 12th May to the 20th or 25th 

 June, but after that it becomes rarer, but may be heard now and then up to the 23rd July." 

 Prof. Menzbier says (Ibis, 1887, p. 301) that " it is very common throughout the country about 

 the rivers Murghab, Tedgend, and Dushak, also in the district of Kaakuk, and along the rivers 

 running from the mountains of Deregez and Keliat to the N. and N.E., while more to the west, 

 in the country about the rivers Atrek, Chandyr, and Sumbar, the beautiful P. persicus takes 

 its place." 



According to Major Yate (Ibis, 1889, p. 584) it is extremely numerous at Maruchak, on 

 the Upper Murghab. It is, he says, "extraordinary 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 December we brought in a bag of 72 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 says (Trans. Linn. Soc. ser. 2, Zoology, v. p. 86) that " 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 400 

 were killed in the march of 30 miles up this river. It not only wades through the water in 



