12 



GAME-BIRDS 



Phasianidiii, which include the partridges and quails, are distinguished 

 by the absence of feathering on the legs and feet, and of horny comb- 

 like appendages on the latter, as well as by the frequent presence of 

 one or two spurs on the former. In the typical pheasants, which form 

 an exclusively Old World group, unknown in Africa, the tail considerably 

 ex'ceeds the length of the wing, and the plumage of the cock is remark- 

 able for its brilliancy. In 

 the original pheasant intro- 

 duced into Britain the neck 

 was uniformly dark, but the 

 breed has now been crossed 

 with the ring-necked Chinese 

 pheasant and also with the 

 Japanese species. 



Indeed, the so-called old 

 English pheasant, the true 

 Phasianus co/chicics, is al most, 

 if not quite, extinct in Great 

 Britain, having been swamped 

 by crossing with the ring- 

 necked and Japanese species 

 {P. torquatus and P. versi- 

 color), introduced about the 

 middle of the eighteenth 

 century ; the result of this 

 crossing having been to pro- 

 duce finer birds than are to be 

 met with among any of the 

 original species. Birds more 

 or less inclining to one or the 

 other of the parent t\'pes are 

 still to be met with in English coverts, and may be distinguished as 

 follows : — P. colchicus type — in which there is no white ring round the 

 neck and tiie long feathers arising from the lower part of the back — gener- 

 ally described by sportsmen as rump-feathers — are glossed with purple- 

 lake or oily green, according to the direction of the light in which they 

 are viewed, while the chest and flanks are fiery orange ; the tail-feathers 

 being marked with narrow black bars set wide apart : second 1>', the 

 P. versicolor t}-pe, in which the white ring is absent, while the rump- 

 feathers are a bluish slate-colour ; the interscapulars are dark green 

 shot with purple, and ornamented with crescentic lines of buff and the 



I'llKAS.XNT. 



