characteristics between P. c. karpowi and the Manchurian ringneck (P. c. 
pallasi). Thus, on the Korean peninsula, most of the range of pure 
P. c. karpowi appears to lie in South Korea, The name South Korean 
ringneck has accordingly been utilized here for this subspecies. 
Delacour presents the following taxonomy and distribution for the 
Korean=-Manchurian pheasants: 
Order Galliformes 
Family Phasianidae 
Genus Phasianus 
Species P. colchicus 
Subspecies 
P. c. karpowi South Korean ring- Northeastern Chihli; southern 
necked pheasant Manchuria and Korea, mainly 
south of the 40th parallel; 
Che ju Do and Tsushima islands 
P. c. pallasi Manchurian ring~ Southeastern Siberia from the 
necked pheasant upper Amur and Ussuriland 
south of lat.44°N., south to 
northern Chihli and central 
Manchuria 
Introductions 
According to the 1957 check-list of North American Birds (2) the 
ring-necked pheasant now established in the United States has come from 
China, supposedly P. c. torquatus, and from England,where the races colchi- 
cus, torquatus, and others have been introduced and have mingled. In 
the eastern and central United States Gardiner Bump (a) believes that the 
major addition has been P. c. mongolicus. There is no indication that 
sizable numbers of the Manchurian or of the Korean ringnecks were added to 
the ringneck stock in the United States prior to 1959, 
Delacour (8) noted that P. c. karpowi was bred in captivity in 1926 
at Cleres, France, that some of the birds raised were released, but that 
no pure stock subsequently has been preserved, This subspecies was also 
introduced into Japan in 1919 by the Bird and Mammal Experimental Station 
of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. Game farm propagation was 
followed a few years later by releases into the wild. By 1930 this 
pheasant had been liberated in many prefectures of Honshu and Kyushu and 
is reported to have interbred freely with the native green pheasants. 
The pure ring-necked pheasant strain lasted only a short time and few 
remain today in the southern Japanese islands. 
Of particular interest, however, was the release of the Korean 
ring-necked pheasant on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido as 
reported by Austin and Kuroda (4): 
(a) Personal communication. 
36 
