190 PHEASANT. 



plumage. I will not say how this happens ; or whether it may be 

 peculiar to this species to grow barren (if that be the reason*) sooner 

 than any other of the Gallinaceous Tribe; but I have been assured, 

 that such birds have proved, on eating, to be young, from their juici- 

 ness and delicacy of flavour. 



A. — Phasianus torquatus, Ind. Orn. ii. 629. 4. /3. Gm. Lin. i. 742. Temm. Pig. 1$ 



Gall. 8vo.ii. p. 326. 

 Ring Pheasant, Gen. Syn. iv. 715. Id. Sup. 208. Zoo!. Misc. pi. 66. 



This beautiful Variety has the plumage much the same as in the 

 Common Sort, but the colours more decided and brilliant, particu- 

 larly the feathers of the lower part of the neck and breast, which are 

 more deeply indented at the ends, each being there divided, or bifid. 

 It differs, too, in having the top of the head fine deep brown ; a 

 ring of white round the middle of the neck ; the shoulders glossy 

 ash-colour; the rump silky greenish ; down the middle of the belly 

 glossy black ; sides of the vent ferruginous. 



This is common in the woods of many parts of China; and one 

 brought from thence by the late Sir George Staunton, did not differ 

 from those now at large in England, except in having a dusky white 

 trace over each eye, which I have also observed in Chinese drawings. 

 These were, it is said, first introduced by the late Duke of Nor- 

 thumberland, by the name of Barbary Pheasants, and many were 

 bred, and turned out at large, at his Grace's seat at Alnwick. Lord 

 Carnarvon did the same at Highclere, in Berkshire; and the late 

 Dutchess Dowager of Portland, at Bulstrode, Bucks; beside many 



* The late Mr. Porter, of Chertsey, had a black Game Hen, which one year grew spot- 

 ted, the next quite white ; spurs grew, and she crowed, but she bred for some years after- 

 wards. — A Cock at a farm-house in Fairfield, near Buxton, for three or four successive 

 years, changed from black to white, and vice versa. On September 3, 1796, when it was 

 noticed by my informant, it had got about half way through its annual transformation. To 

 which we may add, Mr. Butter's Essay on the same subject, in the Werner. Trans. Vol. iii. 

 p. 183. 



