ioo The Natural History of British Game Birds 
conspicuous black bands, passing into reddish brown on the sides of the basal portion of the 
six central feathers ; bill yellowish-horn colour ; irides yellow ; feet greyish white. The female 
has the whole of the upper surface brownish black, with a margin of buff to every feather ; 
the throat whitish, and the central portion of the under surface fawn colour ; flanks mottled 
with brown ; tail buff, barred with dark brown, between which are other interrupted bars of 
the same hue. These marks are broader on the two central feathers than on the others, and, 
moreover, do not reveal the edge on either side." 
Distribution. — All authorities are agreed that this is the common species of 
Pheasant to be found in South and Central China. It extends as far west as 
Szechuen. It is very abundant about Hankow, the country lying north and west of 
the Yangtze, whilst a slightly different variety with ochreous feathers on the flanks 
are found in large numbers in the island of Formosa. As long ago as 1513 it was 
introduced to the island of St. Helena by one Fernandez Lopes, who deserted from 
the Portuguese army at Goa, and it has remained there in its original form ever since. 
The Chinese Pheasant has been introduced with success into New Zealand, the United 
States, and British Columbia. In the two last-named countries it is regarded as a 
more vigorous bird than P. colckicus, for what reasons I failed to discover. 
To England the Chinese Pheasant was introduced in small numbers early in the 
last century. It was not until the late sixties that any great change was observed 
in the purity of the old English stock of P. colchicus, when it was found that the 
Chinese birds had so increased and interbred with the residents that few of the latter 
remained in their original purity. On some few estates the new-comers were religiously 
excluded, but the wandering nature of Pheasants has defied isolation, so that the two 
types have become mixed beyond recognition. Within the last few years the other 
sub-species, the Japanese Pheasant (P. c. versicolor) and the Mongolian Pheasant 
(P. c. inongolicus), birds of approved excellence and fertility, have been introduced in 
large numbers, so that in time the British Pheasant of the future will be a mixture 
of all four varieties. 
Cross-bred birds of the true species and its allied races are perfectly fertile inter se, 
and so ad infinitum. The bird described by Consul Swinhoe as P. decollatus is 
doubtless a local variety of P. c. torquatus. It is said to have no ring round the 
neck, but to be otherwise similar. The first specimen came from Chung-king-foo in 
Szechuen, where my friend Mr. Charles Nix has recently found it. This traveller 
stated to me that he found pure types of the so-called P. decollatus in western 
Szechuen, as well as numbers with large and small white neck rings on the same 
ground, the birds on their eastern habitat grading into the pure type of P. c. torquatus 
found on the Upper Yangtze. 
The Yarkand Pheasant (P. c. insignis) and Shaw's Pheasant (P. c. shawi), both 
geographical variations of the Chinese Pheasant, have not so far been introduced 
into Britain. 
