94 PHASIANIDiE. 



handsome species, P. chrysomclas, with a small white collar 

 and rich golden neck and hreast- feathers tipped with emerald 

 green ; but although nearer in point of distance to P. col- 

 chicus, neither of the above so closely resemble our Pheasant 

 as does P. shaivi, which is now found only on the eastern 

 side of a lofty range whose passes attain an altitude of 

 14,000 feet. This distribution is exceedingly puzzling, and 

 can only be cleared up by more exact information. The 

 other species of the group are the collarless P. decoUatus of 

 Moupin, where it is the only species, but which mixes on its 

 eastern frontier with the collared P. torquatiis of Southern 

 China ; the two collarless species, P. clegans of the west of 

 Sechuen and Yunnan, and P. versicolor of Japan ; and the 

 collared P. formosanus, of the island of Formosa. Excepting 

 for the introduction of P. torquatus and P. versicolor into 

 our covers, these species have no immediate bearing upon 

 the question. 



Whatever may have been the date of the introduction 

 of the Pheasant into England, it has undoubtedly main- 

 tained itself in this country in a wild state for a period 

 sufficient to entitle it to be considered a British bird. Upon 

 this point Professor Boyd Dawkins has contributed the 

 following : — 



"It may interest your readers to know that the most 

 ancient record of the occurrence of the Pheasant in Great 

 Britain is to be found in the tract ' De inventione Sanctae 

 Crucis nostra in Monte Acuto et de ductione ejusdem apud 

 Waltham,' edited from manuscripts in the British Museum 

 by Professor Stubbs, and published in 1861. The bill of 

 fare drawn up by Harold for the Canon's household of from 

 six to seven persons, a.d. 1059, and preserved in a manu- 

 script of the date of circa 1111 , was as follows (p. 16) : — 



" ' Erant autem tales pitantife unicuique canonico : afesto 

 Sancti Miehaelis usque ad caput jejunii [Ash Wednesday] 

 aut xii. merulae, aut ii. agauseae [Agacc, a magpie (?) : 

 Ducange] aut ii. perdices, aut unus phasianus, reliquis 

 tcmporibus aut ancae [Geese : Ducange'] aut gallinae.' 



" Now the point of tbis passage is that it shews that 



i 



