THE COMMON PHEASANT 



fair presumptive evidence that it was introduced by the 

 Romans. 



The original habitat of these Pheasants was said to be 

 near the River Phasis in Colchis, where the Argonaut when 

 returning to Greece from their expedition in search of the 

 Golden Fleece, found it in large numbers. Hence it has 

 derived the name that it bears. 



The Hon. T. S. Powys, in his article on The Birds 

 Observed in the Ionian Islands, says of the common 

 Pheasant : — 



"That the only localities in which I have myself seen 

 Pheasants in these parts, were once on the Luro River, 

 near Preveso, in March 1857, on which occasion I only saw 

 one, the bird having never previously been met with in 

 that part of the country ; and again in December of the 

 same year, in the forests near the mouth of the River Drin 

 in Albania, where it is apparently common, and where 

 several fell to our guns. In this latter locality, the Pheasants' 

 habitat seems to be confined to the radius of from 20 to 

 30 miles to the north, east and south, to the town of 

 Alessio, a district for the most part densely-wooded and 

 well-watered, with occasional tracts of cultivated ground, 

 Indian corn being apparently the principal produce, and 

 forming with the Berries of the Privet which abounds 

 throughout Albania, the chief food of the present species. 

 We heard many more pheasants than we saw, as the woods 

 were thick, our dogs wild, and we lost a great deal of time 

 in making circuits to cross or avoid the numerous deep 

 streams which intersect the country in every direction." 



This species is particularly abundant on the shores of 

 the Gulf of Salonica, about the mouth of the River Vardar, 

 and I have been informed, on good authority, that Pheasants 



31 



