PHEASANT 141 



is evidence to show that it was prior to the invasion 

 of the Normans, and that we are probably indebted 

 for this game-bird to the enterprise of the Romans 

 (see The Ibis, 1869, p. 358). 



The species first imported was that which owes 

 its scientific name to the river Phasis in Colchis, 

 on the wooded banks of which it was said to 

 have been originally discovered, and where it is 

 still common, the river being the modern Rion 

 in Transcaucasia. In the eighteenth century the 

 Chinese Phasianus torqiiatus and the Japanese P. 

 versicolor were introduced, and the present race of 

 Pheasants of this country has sprung from the inter- 

 mingling of these three species. The precise date of 

 the introduction of each is uncertain, but there is 

 some evidence to show that the Ring-necked Phea- 

 sant from China was known in England before 1741, 

 and that the Japanese versicolor probably came 

 into England in that year. When Peter Collinson 

 visited Capt. Goff, " an East India director," in 

 Essex in 1742, he saw some "beautiful China phea- 

 sants, and a third sort different from them which 

 came over last year." ^ The bird which Dr. John 

 Hill in his "History of Animals" described in 

 1752 as "the East Indian Pheasant," was apparently 

 P. versicolor, which, he remarked, " is sometimes 

 brought over to us." In my " Ornithology of Shake- 

 speare" (pp. 210-216) I have collected from various 

 sources, some curious information relating to the 



^ The Correspondence of Dr. Richardson of Bierley, Yorkshire. 

 Privately printed. 8vo. Yarmouth, 1835, p. 391. 



