500 PHEASANT. 



menced, which has left almost indelible marks, especially with regard 

 to the characteristic white collar. Fertile hybrids have also been 

 produced with the beautiful green-tinted Japanese P. versicolor^ and 

 the splendid long-tailed Chinese P. reevesi; the so-called "Bohemian 

 Pheasant" being merely a pale buff-coloured variety. 



The Pheasant owes its generic and specific names to its tradi- 

 tional introduction from the banks of the Colchian Phasis — the 

 modern Rion — which enters the Black Sea near Poti ; and there 

 the pure breed is still to be found, ^^'estward, it inhabits portions 

 of Asia Minor, Turkey, Greece, Albania and Roumelia, but it may 

 be doubted whether it is indigenous to the northward of the 

 Balkans, though it is found wild in Corsica. Under greater or less 

 protection it is met with in nearly every country of Europe, up to 

 the southern districts of Sweden and Norway. Eastward, its range 

 extends along the southern shores of the Caspian about as far as 

 Astrabad, beyond which a desert cuts it off from the various species 

 which inhabit Afghanistan, Turkestan, Mongolia, and China. 



The short crow of the males may be heard in March, when fight- 

 ing takes place for the possession of the hens, which, as a rule, 

 begin to lay in April. From 10-14 eggs, measuring about i'85 by 

 I "45 in., of an olive-brown or sometimes a pale blue colour, are 

 deposited in a slight nest on the ground; but exceptionally squirrels' 

 dreys and former habitations of other birds in trees are selected. 

 Incubation lasts 23 days. Several hens will sometimes sit amicably 

 on the same nest, as they will do with Partridges and domestic 

 fowls ; while in a few instances cock-birds have been seen incu- 

 bating as well as rearing the brood. The natural food consists of 

 grain, berries, acorns and other vegetable matter, snails, and an 

 enormous number of wire-worms and injurious insects; ants and 

 their larvs forming the chief sustenance of the young. Water and 

 cover are indispensable, though trees are not absolutely essential, 

 for Pheasants do not constantly roost in them during the summer. 

 When well on the wing their pace is tremendous, and they have 

 been seen to fly nearly four miles at a stretch ; they also swim with 

 considerable facility. Hybrids have been produced with Black 

 Grouse and several other species of gallinaceous birds. A partial 

 assumption of the male plumage by females which are old or have 

 ceased to breed is not uncommon. 



Space does not allow of a description of the Pheasant, now 

 seldom — if ever — found pure-bred in this country. The average 

 weight of an old cock-bird is from i-^l lbs., and of a hen about 

 2\ lbs. 



