PHASIANUS MONGOLICUS, Brandt 



Mongolian Pheasant. 



Phasianus Cokhicus, var. Mongolica, Pall. Zoogr., torn. ii. p. 84. 



— — Mongolicus, Brandt, Bull, des Sci. de St. Petersb., torn. iii. p. 51. 



As any additional information relative to the history of the typical Pheasants cannot fail to be of interest to 

 various classes of the community, I have considerable pleasure in giving a figure of a very fine bird of this 

 genus, at present scarcely known even to the scientific world. The obscurity in which it is involved is due 

 to the small amount of European intercourse with the distant country of which it is a native, and the 

 little we do know respecting it is derived from Pallas and other Russian travellers and naturalists. 



I am indebted to Professor Brandt, of the Imperial Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg, a gentleman 

 distinguished for his profound acquirements in many branches of natural history, not only for a very beautiful 

 skin of this species, but for the following note, which I give in his own words. I am also indebted to the 

 intrepid Siberian traveller, Mr. Atkinson, for some notes respecting the Pheasants seen by him during his 

 journey, and which doubtless have reference to the present bird and the Phasianus Colchicus. 



" The Phasianus Mongolicus" says Professor Brandt, " is the variety Mongolicce of the Phasiani Colchici 

 of Pallas (Zoographia, vol. ii. p. 84), of which that naturalist has himself said, at p. 85, — ' Dubius heereo 

 an hanc avem pro varietate Ph. Colchici vel pro distincta specie tradam ; ' but I am satisfied that it is quite 

 distinct, both from that bird and from the P. torquatus ; I have therefore assigned to it the specific desig- 

 nation of Mongolicus. Independently of the localities mentioned by Pallas, the P. Mongolicus is also found 

 in Tarbagatai and in the Altai, and is doubtless spread over the country lying to the westward." 



" In answer to your inquiries about the Pheasants of Asia," says Mr. Atkinson, " I beg to say that I first 

 observed them on the wooded banks of the Lepsou, a river which falls into the Balkash ; these had the 

 white ring round their necks ; they were also seen in vast numbers on the borders of all the small rivers 

 and in the wooded ravines in the great horde of Kirghis, which stretch along the foot of the Alatou Moun- 

 tains. Further to the west, on the Kezzil-a-gatch, I found the Common Pheasant in considerable numbers ; 

 I have also seen several that were brought from the country to the west of the river Ilia. After extending 

 my journey to the Gobi Desert, south of the Tangnou Mountains, I again found them on the small rivers of 

 Mongolia, and these also had the white ring." 



We have now therefore a knowledge of the existence of four very distinct, but nearly allied species of true 

 Pheasants, which, contrary to the usual course of nature, will probably cross with each other in a state of 

 semi-confinement, the produce of which, if not prolific with each other, will be so with their parents on 

 either side ; the four species are, Phasianus Mongolicus, P. torquatus, P. versicolor, and P. Colchicus. Of 

 these the most powerful is the P. Mongolicus, the native country of which is Mongolia and Chinese Tartary, 

 while that of P. torquatus is Eastern China, P. versicolor Japan, and P. Colchicus Asia Minor and Western 

 Asia. 



The P. Mongolicus differs from all the other species above enumerated in its larger size, in the glaucous 

 colouring of its shoulders, and particularly in the narrow and well-defined barrings of its tail-feathers ; it has 

 the lunate mark of white on the neck much broader than in P. torquatus ; and it also differs from that bird 

 in the absence of any buff colouring on the sides, or of any black colour on the abdomen. 



The male may be thus described : — Crown of the head and nape greenish bronze, in some lights very 

 strongly tinged with purple ; sides of the head and neck green ; round the back of the neck a broad lunate 

 mark of pure white ; feathers of the base of the neck and upper part of the back bronzy red, with a small, 

 nearly triangular mark of black at the tip of each ; remainder of the back-feathers chestnut-red, broadly 

 margined with greenish bronze ; shoulders or lesser wing-coverts glaucous white ; greater coverts grey, with 

 white shafts, on either side of which are two irregular marks of chestnut, which advance towards each other 

 and meet near the apex of the feather; primaries brown, margined externally with buff, and toothed 

 internally with greyish white ; secondaries greyish brown, mottled with darker brown, and broadly margined 

 with chestnut, some of the feathers having a broad whitish stripe down the centre ; breast and under surface 

 fiery chestnut-red, each feather broadly margined with bronzy green ; those of the flanks crossed at the tip 

 by a line which in some lights is black and in others brilliant green, the extent of this mark increasing 

 as the feathers proceed towards the vent ; these flank feathers are moreover of a more fiery chestnut hue 

 than the other parts of the body ; centre of the abdomen and the thighs, which are densely clothed, reddish 

 brown, glossed on the tips of the feathers with green ; tail-feathers bronzy red, crossed by numerous narrow 

 bars of black, bordered on each side by a lighter line of bronzy red than the body of the feather ; all the 

 tail-feathers fringed with bronzy green ; the hue of the longer tail-feathers becomes paler towards the tip 

 and the bands greatly increased in breadth ; under tail-coverts deep red. 



Total length, 3 feet 3 inches ; bill, \\ inch ; wing, 10^ inches ; tail, 2 feet 1 inch ; tarsi, 3f inches. 



The female I have never seen ; but there are specimens in the Museum at St. Petersburg ; one collected 

 by M. Kareline, at Semipalatinsk in Siberia, near the Chinese frontier, in the collection of M. Hauptman 

 Kinchhoff ; and another in the Museum at Bremen, which latter, Dr. Hartlaub informs me, is somewhat 

 darker in colour than the female of P. Colchicus. 



The figure is about two-thirds of the natural size. 



