THE PHEASANT FAMILY 3 



wings, and include — besides the family we have to 

 deal with — the ' Button-quails ^ of Anglo-Indians, 

 the mound builders of Australasia, the handsome 

 Curassows of S. America, and the curious Hoatzin 

 or 'stinking pheasant' of Guiana and Brazil, 

 whose unique anatomy proved a veritable bone of 

 contention among the learned, until he was ac- 

 corded the honour of a Sub-Order all to himself) 



Family Phasianidae, 



comprising Guinea-fowls, turkeys, partridges, 

 grouse, and pheasants. 



Among the members of this family- 

 are numbered the true pheasants (genus 

 Phasianus). 



Natives of Asia, and living in a 

 country of wide river basins each com- 

 pletely shut off from the next by mighty 

 mountain range or barren desert of sand- 

 dunes, they can all probably claim a 

 distant ancestor in common, long isolation 

 having resulted in fixing each chance 

 variation from the original type, which 

 free intercommunication would serve to 

 completely obliterate in a few generations. 



Of the nineteen kinds of true pheasants 



