234 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



A second genus of the group, Rheinardia, contains a single species 

 {R. ocellata). This, which inhabits the interior of Tonkin, is much 

 like Argusianus in form, having equally elongated middle rectrices (the 

 adult male measuring about seven feet in total length), but the secondaries 

 are much less developed, being but little if any longer than the primaries, 

 and the coloration quite different. 



(2) Perdicinae (the Old World quails). This group contains rela- 

 tively plain-colored birds of small to medium size, with the bill relatively 

 shorter and stouter, the maxilla deeper and narrower (transversely) and 

 its tip less produced, than in most true pheasants. 



(3) Odontophorinue (New World quails). Galliform birds of small 

 to medium size (wing 95-165 mm.) with the mandibular tomia ser- 

 rated or toothed subterminally. This group agrees in other characters 

 with the other members of the family, especially the Perdicinae, which 

 it represents in the Western Hemisphere. Besides the presence of the 

 serrations of the cutting edge of the mandible, possessed by all its members 

 and by none of the other groups of the family, the Odontophorinae have 

 the bill still stouter and shorter. None of them have spurs, though many 

 of the Perdicinae also do not. Additional characters are as follows : Tail 

 less than half as long as to slightly longer than wings, the rectrices ( 10- 

 14) never acuminate; tarsus less than one-fourth to more than one-third 

 as long as wing, the acrotarsium with a single row of broad, transverse 

 scutella, the planta tarsi with two or (usually) more definite rows of 

 moderately long scutella but partly covered with small scales. 



The remaining members of the Phasianidae, comprising about 26 genera 

 and more than 175 species and subspecies, are not so easily classified. 

 Some of them are more or less nearly allied to one or another of the 

 groups described above ; but much the greater number are very different, 

 including the various partridges, francolins, and spurfowl, for the most 

 part rather plainly colored birds of small to very small size. These may 

 well be dismissed, in this connection, without further mention, since the 

 present work has to do directly only with the few forms introduced into 

 North America with the view to their naturalization. 



The Phasiani are peculiar to Asia, including the outlying islands of 

 the Malay Archipelago, Japan, and Formosa. One species at present 

 occurs in Europe but is generally supposed, on the evidence of "what 

 passes for history,"^^ to have been introduced from western Asia into 

 continental Europe by the Argonauts, and into the British Islands by the 

 Romans. This, the so-called English pheasant {Phasimms colckicus), 

 has been introduced into the United States and is already naturalized 

 locally, while several other very beautiful species have been introduced 

 into Oregon, Washington, and other parts of the Far West, with more 



"^ Alfred Newton, Dictionary of Birds, 1894, 713. 



