Add BRITISH BIRDS. 
Genus PHASIANUS. 
The genus Phasianus was included by Linneus in 1766 in the twelfth 
edition of his ‘Systema Nature’ (i. p. 270). The Common Pheasant (the 
Phasianus phasianus of Brisson) must be accepted as the type of the 
genus. 
The Pheasants may be distinguished from all the other Game Birds by 
the absence of an occipital crest and their long pointed tail. The tarsus is 
long, and in the male armed with one small spur. The nostrils are par- 
tially concealed with a membrane. 
There are about a dozen species of Pheasants, entirely confined to the 
south-eastern portions of the Palearctic Region and the northern portions 
of the Oriental Region. One species only is European, which is a common 
resident in the British Islands. 
The Pheasants are shy and retiring, and only frequent places in which 
plenty of cover is to be found—large woods and plantations in which there 
is plenty of undergrowth surrounded by open country, which they visit 
to feed. They fly heavily but quickly, making a whirring sound when they 
rise; and on the ground they walk and run about much like domestic 
poultry. They are both granivorous and insectivorous. Their notes are 
_ harsh and discordant. The females make a slight nest on the ground, 
merely a hollow in which are scraped a few dead leaves, withered grass, &c. 
Their eggs are numerous, and, so far as is known, plain unspotted brown 
or olive-green in colour. 
