THE COMMON PHEASANT 
25. Sa-tscheu pheasant. P, satscheuensis. Sa-tscheu (Sachjow Oasis), 
northern slopes of the Nan- Shan Mountains. 
26. Kobdo pheasant, P, hagenbecki. Kobdo, north of the Great Altai 
Mountains. 
C. Rump greenish-slate-colour, without a rust-coloured patch on either side. 
27. Japanese pheasant, P. versicolor. Japan, except the Island of Yezo. 
It is by no means certain that all the species mentioned in the above 
list are really distinct. P. alaschanicus appears to be very doubtfully 
separable from P. decollatus, and apparently one male only has been 
examined. A careful re-examination of the large number of ring -necked 
pheasants of the P. torquatus group now in the Natural History Museum 
and in the Tring Museum seems to indicate that P. kiangsuensis from 
North China is not distinct from P. karpowi from Corea, and that the 
latter is only distinguishable from P. pallasi by the darker colour of the 
flank -feathers. Typical P. torquatus, with pale straw-coloured flank- 
feathers and a narrower white ring round the neck, often incomplete in 
front, inhabits the whole of South-eastern China as far north as the 
Hoang -ho. Beyond that great river, and northwards to the Amur the 
birds met with have a much wider white collar, widest in front of the neck, 
and I am strongly of opinion, after examining many specimens, that at most 
two forms with a wide collar can be recognized : the more southern, with 
rather darker, more coppery flanks ; and the more northern (Central and 
Northern Manchuria and Ussuriland), with paler, more straw-coloured 
flanks. However this may be, it will not greatly matter to importers of live 
pheasants whether their wide -ringed birds come from North-eastern 
China or from Manchuria, for the birds are very closely allied sub-species. 
Food. — ^In a wild state pheasants feed on various kinds of grain, 
especially on wheat and barley, on grass -seeds and the flowers of the 
rush, on grapes, and all sorts of forest -fruits and berries; likewise on 
vegetable matter of many kinds, including the fronds of the polypody 
fern. They are also very partial to animal food, such as snails and worms, 
as well as ants and various other insects and their larvae. In this country 
their food is perhaps even more varied, and to the above list may be added 
—especially in spring — all sorts of bulbous roots, including those of the 
buttercup and wild arum; also strawberries, blackberries, hips, haws, 
yew -berries and leaves, elder and holly berries, acorns, beech -mast, 
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