22 GALLIFORMES CHAP. 
Space is wanting to describe the various females, or to discuss 
the sport that Pheasants afford; but the swift flight, the powers 
of foot, the polygamous and pugnacious habits, the olive-coloured 
egos, and the immense numbers reared artificially, must be 
noticed. P. reevesi, Reeves’s Pheasant, P. versicolor, the Green 
Pheasant, and P. soemmerringi, the Copper Pheasant, have also been 
introduced into Britain, the two latter and P. torquatus into Oregon, 
P. colchicus into the Eastern United States; New Zealand has 
received both P. colchicus and P. torquatus, St. Helena and Ascen- 
sion P. torquatus only—the former island as early as 1513. 
Catreus wallichi of the Himalayas has a brown head with fine 
white-tipped crest ; a grey neck, yellowish and whitish upper parts, 
black and buff primaries, and a rufous rump, all with black barring ; 
the under surface is light buff with black marks, the naked orbits 
are red. The male has a pair of spurs and very long median 
rectrices ; the female being brown mottled with black and_ buff, 
having a smaller crest, a shorter tail, and at times rudimentary spurs. 
Considerable flocks frequent the grassy forest-hills up to an altitude 
of eight thousand feet, lying very closely in the day-time, though 
running with great speed when disturbed, and flying heavily for a 
short way; they feed towards evening on roots, seeds, berries, grubs, 
and insects, reiterating the peculiar call, whence they are named 
“Cheer.” The slight nest, generally sheltered by a bush or tus- 
sock at the base of a hill, contains from nine to fourteen whitish 
or pale drab eggs, sometimes sparingly spotted with red-brown. 
Pucrasia contains six species or local races of “ Pukras” or 
“ Koklas” Pheasants, with long, black, erectile ear-tufts in the 
male, which has a spur on each metatarsus, but no naked cheeks. 
P. macrolopha of the Western Himalayas has a well-developed 
buff crest, a greenish-black head and neck with a white patch on 
each side of the latter, grey upper parts and whitish flanks with 
black shaft-stripes, brownish wings marked with buff, chestnut 
under parts and median feathers of the elongated, wedge-shaped 
tail, and blackish lateral rectrices with white tips. The black 
and rufous hen has a white throat, a short crest, and no ear-tufts 
or spurs. LP. castanea of North Afghanistan and Kafiristan has 
the mantle chestnut, P. nipalensis of the Central Himalayas black 
varied by grey and reddish; P. meyeri of South Tibet and the 
1 Much interesting information is given in Yarrell’s Brit. Birds, ed. 4, iii. 
1832-84, pp. 91-104, and Tegetmeier, Pheasants: their Nat. Hist. etc., ed. 2, 1881. 
