THE COMMON PHEASANT 
the head green or greenish -bronze is very interesting. All are natives of 
Asia, extending to Japan and Formosa. They fall naturally into three main 
groups, two of which are divisible into two minor sections. 
A. General colour of the lower back, rump and upper tail-coverts 
maroon or bronze -red, glossed with purple or green. 
(a) With no white ring round the neck, or with only traces of one. 
P. colchicus and allies. 
(b) With a broad white ring round the neck. P. mongolicus and 
allies. 
B. General colour of the lower back, rump, and upper tail -coverts 
greenish- or bluish-slate-colour, with a rust-coloured patch on either side. 
(c) With no white ring round the neck, or with only traces of one. 
P, decollatus and allies. 
(d) With a white ring round the neck. P. torquatus and allies. 
C. General colour of the lower back, rump and upper tail -coverts 
greenish -slate -colour, without a rust-coloured patch on the sides 
(underparts uniform dark-green). P. versicolor. 
All the maroon-rumped species (A) are found west of about 90® E. 
longitude, while those with grey rumps (B) are met with only to the east 
of that line. 
Roughly speaking, all the species with a white ring round the neck 
are northern forms, while those without that ornament, or with only 
traces of it, are met with further south. 
P. colchicus and its allies (a) which have no white ring, but have a 
maroon-coloured rump, inhabit the area south of about 41° N. latitude, 
and west of about 90° E. longitude ; while P, mongolicus and P. turces- 
tanicus (b), both of which have a well-marked white collar as well as a 
maroon rump are met with north of about 41° N. latitude, and west of 
about 90° E. longitude. 
Again, among the grey-rumped species (B), P. decollatus and P. 
elegans (both beautiful Chinese species), as well as other allied forms 
(c) without white collars or with only traces of that ornament, occur 
south of about 40° N. latitude, and east of about 90° E. longitude ; while 
the ring -necked forms (d) of which P. torquatus is typical, though found 
as far south in China as Canton and in Formosa, range far north to the 
Amur River about 50° N. latitude. 
Thus, on the whole, one may regard the ringed form as the northern 
type, and those without the white ring as the southern type. That all 
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