s, is
found now in only two localities--near Ichang on the Yangtze River,
and at the _Tung Ling_. When the forests of the Eastern Tombs have
been cleared this species will be extinct in all north China.

Early in the morning we left with six hunters. Our way led up the
bottom of the valley toward a mountain ridge north of camp. As we
walked along the trail, suddenly one of the hunters caught me by the
arm and whispered, "_Sang-chi_" (wild chicken). There was a whir of
wings, a flash of gold--and I registered a clean miss! The bird
alighted on the mountain side, and in the bliss of ignorance Smith
and I dashed after it. Ten minutes later we were exhausted from the
climb and the pheasant had disappeared. We learned soon that it is
useless to chase a Reeves's pheasant when it has once been flushed,
for it will invariably make for a mountain side, run rapidly to the
top, and, once over the summit, fly to another ridge.

On the way home I got my first pheasant, and an hour later put up
half a dozen. I should have had two more, but instead of shooting I
only stared, fascinated by the beauty of the thing I saw. It was
late in the afternoon and the sun was drawing oblique paths of
shimmering golden light among the trees. In a clearing near the
summit of a wooded shoulder I saw six pheasants feeding and I
realized that, by skirting the base of the ridge, I could slip up
from behind and force them to fly across the open valley. The stalk
progressed according to schedule. When I crossed the ridge there was
a whir of wings and six birds shot into the air not thirty feet
away. The sun, glancing on their yellow backs and streaming plumes,
transformed them into golden balls, each one with a comet-trail of
living fire.

The picture was so indescribably beautiful that I watched them sail
across the valley with the gun idle in my hands. Not for worlds
would I have turned one of those glorious birds into a crumpled mass
of flesh and feathers. For centuries the barred tail plumes, which
sometimes are six feet long, have been worn by Chinese actors, and
the bird is famous in their literature. It will be a real tragedy
when this species has passed out of the fauna of north China, as it
will do inevitably if the wanton destruction of the _Tung Ling_
forests is continued unchecked.

The next afternoon four sika deer gave me a hard chase up and down
three mountain ridges. Finally, we located the animals in a deep
valley, and I had an oppo