The Chinese Pheasant 99 
After this digression we must return to our Pheasant-fowl hybrids. Mr. Tegetmeier 
is inclined to regard such crosses as sterile; but I do not, provided that a nearly allied 
mate, such as the species to which either parent belonged, is forthcoming, and that 
the female takes a fancy to so ugly a husband. A specimen of such a second cross 
seems to have occurred if we accept Yarrell's account {British Birds, 4th ed., iii. 101). 
At a meeting of the Zoological Society, Sept. 27, 1836, a note was read from Mr. 
Fuller of Carleton Hall, Saxmundham, stating that in the previous year his game- 
keeper had succeeded in rearing two birds " from a barn-door hen, having a cross 
from the Pheasant, and a Pheasant cock." The living birds, which Mr. Fuller pre- 
sented to the Society, were exhibited at the meeting, with a hybrid between a Pheasant 
and a common fowl, one of several that had been for some years in the gardens. 
It. is stated in the Proceedings (1836, p. 84) that "the specimens of the three-quarter- 
bred Pheasants were considered interesting, the opinion of the older physiologists 
having been that animals bred between parents of two distinct species were un- 
productive." Yarrell and Vigors took part in the conversation which followed, but 
no doubt was expressed as to the birds having been bred in the manner described 
by Mr. Fuller. 
Sub-species of P. colchicus 
THE CHINESE PHEASANT 
Phasianus colchicus torquatus (Gmelin) 
The following is the detailed description of the male and female as given by the 
late Mr. Gould in his monograph of the Birds of Asia : — 
"The male has the forehead deep green; crown of the head fawn colour, glossed with 
green ; over each eye a conspicuous streak of buffy white ; the naked papillated skin of the 
orbits and sides of the face deep scarlet or blood-red, interspersed beneath the eye with a 
series of very minute black feathers ; horn-like tufts on each side of the head ; throat and neck 
rich, deep, shining green, with violet reflections ; near the base of the neck a conspicuous collar 
of shining white feathers, narrow before and behind, and broadly dilated at the sides ; the 
feathers of the back of the neck black, with a narrow mark of white down the centre of the 
back portion, and a large lengthened mark of ochreous yellow within the edge of each web near 
the tip ; the feathers of back and scapularies black at the base, with a streak of white in 
the middle, then buff surrounded with a distinct narrow band of black, to which succeeds an 
outer fringe of chestnut ; feathers of the back black, with numerous zigzag and crescentic marks 
of buffy white ; lower part of the back, rump, and upper tail-coverts, light green of various 
shades, passing into bluish grey at the sides, below which is a mark of rufous ; breast feathers 
indented at the tip, of a rich reddish chestnut, with purple reflections, and each bordered with 
black ; flanks fine buff, with a large angular spot of beautiful violet at the tip ; centre of the 
abdomen black, with violet reflections ; under tail-coverts, reddish chestnut ; wing coverts sil- 
very grey ; wings brown, the primaries with light shafts, and crossed with narrow bars of 
light buff ; the secondaries similar, but not so regularly marked as the primaries ; tail feathers 
olive, fringed with different shades of reddish violet, and crossed at regular intervals with broad, 
