THE TRUE PHEASANTS. 9 



with one another in captivity, or when they have been arti- 

 ficially brought into the same neighbourhood, and in the 

 majority of cases at least the hybrids produced are perfectly 

 fertile. In this country it is now almost impossible to find 

 quite pure-bred examples of what is commonly called " the 

 old English Pheasant" {P. cokhicus), for the Chinese ringed 

 species (/*. forquatus), which was subsequently introduced, has 

 crossed with it everywhere, and almost all the birds now met 

 with are hybrids, displaying the characters of both species in a 

 greater or lesser degree. 



J. Crown of the head green or greenish-hrotize ; general colour 

 of the tower bacli, rump, and upper tail-coverts maroon 

 or reddish-bro7ize, glossed ivith purple or green ; with no 

 white ring round the neck^ or with only traces of one. 



I. THE COMMON PHEASANT. PHASIANUS COLCHICUS. 



Fhasianus colchicus, Linn. S. N. i. p. 271 (1766); Gould, B. 



Europe, pi. 247 (1837); id. B. Asia, vii. pi. 34 (1869); 



Elhot, Monogr. Phasian. ii. pi. 2 (1872); Dresser, B. 



Europe, vii. p. 85, pi. 469 (1879) 'y Ogilvie Grant, Cat. B. 



Brit. Mus. xxii. p. 320 (1893).* 

 Fhasianus colchicus septentrionalis, Lorenz, J. f. O. 1888, p. 



572. 

 Adult Male.t — Crown of the head bronze-green ; rest of the 

 head and neck dark green, shading into purple on the sides 

 and front of the neck. Feathers of the mantle, chest, breast, 

 and flanks fiery orange, the former narrowly margined with 

 purplish-green, the latter widely edged with rich purple ; those 

 of the upper back and scapulars mottled in the middle with 

 black and buff, margined by consecutive bands of buff, black 

 and orange-red, and tipped with purplish-lake. Lower back, 

 rump, and upper tail-coverts red-maroon, glossed withpurplish- 



* Cf. also "Fur and Feather" Series, Svo, 1895. 



t It has been found necessary to give this rather full description of pure- 

 bred male and female birds for purposes of comparison. 



