THE COMMON PHEASANT 
this country, but, so far as we know, their introduction has made little 
or no impression on the mongrel stock with which these islands are now 
populated. 
Subsequent to the introduction of the ring -necked pheasant, the smaller 
green -breasted Japanese species P. versicolor was imported, and it again 
interbred freely with both the common and ring -necked pheasants. 
Male hybrids of the first cross with either of these species are remarkably 
handsome birds, surpassing both in size and beauty, either of the parents. 
Such crossbred birds are much recommended for turning down in pre- 
serves, not only on account of their large size and excellent table qualities, 
but because of their more sedentary habits. It appears that they seldom 
stray from the coverts where they have been reared, are less given to 
running, rise more rapidly, and fly with greater power. 
The late Mr J. Horne of Hereford always maintained, and we think 
with justice, that the first-cross between the common and Japanese 
pheasants was the finest and most sporting bird that could possibly be 
put down in any covert. 
In recent years other species of pheasants have been imported to this 
country for purposes of sport. The extremely handsome Prince of Wales’s 
pheasant, P. principalis^ first discovered by the late Dr J. E. T. Aitchison 
in 1884 in the Murghab basin in North-west Afghanistan, was successfully 
imported by Colonel M. Sunderland in 1903, and is regarded as a valuable 
addition to our game birds. It is a very handsome species, the male having 
the lower back and rump maroon, the wing-coverts white, the feathers 
of the chest and breast broadly tipped with purplish red -bronze, and the 
flank -feathers broadly tipped with dark purplish-green. Typical examples 
have no trace of a white ring on the neck, but in some birds traces of white 
are present. 
Another splendid species is the Mongolian pheasant, P. turcestanicus 
with a wide white collar round the neck, white wing -coverts, and the 
lower back and rump maroon. The ear-tufts are inconspicuous, and 
the wattles below the eyes unusually large, especially in the breeding 
season. It is a rather larger bird than P. colchicus, and interbreeds freely 
both with that species and with P. torquatus, the crosses with the latter 
being, in the opinion of many, the best birds that can be turned down, 
either for sporting purposes or for the table. The hybrids are very large 
birds, some weighing as much as five pounds. The pure-bred Mongolian 
pheasant is not so good a bird for our coverts as the half-bred, as in 
105 
p 
