THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
some places at least it appears to have a greater tendency to wander 
than its allies, and is less ready to rise. (Plate XV.) 
Lastly, we must mention the magnificent and very distinct Reeves’s 
pheasant, P. reevesii^ from the mountains of Northern and Western China. 
The male has an immensely long tail, which in old birds attains a length 
of at least five feet. This species has at various times been turned down 
on some of the large sporting properties in Great Britain, but it has not * 
proved a success, except in such places as Guisachan, in Inverness-shire, 
where the breed was successfully maintained for some years. Our coverts 
are, as a rule, totally unsuited to the bird’s habits, its natural haunts being 
the wild gorges and rough woods about the head waters of the Yangtze. 
The males are very quarrelsome, and drive away other pheasants, 
moreover, they rarely interbreed with either the common or the ring- 
necked species, and the hybrids are said to be invariably infertile. 
That all our introduced species of pheasants, except the very distinct 
P. reevesiiy should be capable of crossing and recrossing with one another 
and of producing a perfectly fertile race of hybrids, is one of the most 
curious surprises in Nature. The home of P. colchicus in Transcaucasia 
is thousands of miles distant from that of P. torquatus in South China, 
and is still further removed from that of P. versicolor^ which is peculiar 
to Japan. Moreover, these three species are entirely different from one 
another in plumage, as different as any three species of the same genus 
can well be. The fact that they interbreed in captivity, or when turned 
down in a semi -domesticated state in the same country, and that their 
offspring have proved perfectly fertile, has induced some authors to 
regard all the Asiatic pheasants as local races or sub-species of P, colchicus^ 
a conclusion which appears to be erroneous.* Mr Buturlin has devoted 
much time and study to the genus Phasianus, and has published the 
results of his work in the “ Ibis ” (1904, pp. 377-414 ; 1908, pp. 570-592). 
He recognizes thirty-five species and sub-species of “ True blue-and- 
green-headed Pheasants,” and though, no doubt, some of the sub-species 
recognized appear to have very small claims to warrant their bearing a 
distinct name, two dozen or more can be easily distinguished, and inhabit 
well-defined geographical areas, being shut off from their allies by insur- 
mountable natural barriers in the shape of great mountain -ranges and 
wide deserts. 
The geographical distribution of the true pheasants with the crown of 
* See Seebohm on Phasiams colchicus and its allies, Ibis, 1887 p. 158.— Ed, 
106 
