4 ELEMENTS OF ORNITHOLOGY. 
One species, named Gallus bankiva*, has a very wide range— 
namely, from the Himalaya down to the Philippine Islands 
and Timor. Another species is peculiar to Ceylon, and two 
or three more are found in different parts of the wide region 
inhabited by Gallus bankiva. They all resemble, more or less 
nearly, the Game-fowl, and have very similar voices and 
habits. ; 
Hardly less known to most of us than the Fowl is the 
Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), which also is of Asiatic origin, 
though close to the frontiers of Europe—namely, the basin of 
the Caspian, the valleys of the Caucasus and Asia Minor. 
That singular spot—the island of Corsica—which has so many 
species of flowering plants absolutely peculiar to it, is also 
claimed as a natural home of the Pheasant, which, as an intro- 
duced resident, ranges all over Europe (even to our Outer 
Hebrides), except the most northern parts of the Continent and, 
strange as it may appear, the Iberian peninsula. 
In Central and Southern Asia there are some five-and-thirty 
species of Pheasant, while none are found wild in any other 
part of the world. Perhaps the most beautiful of all is Lady 
Ambherst’s Pheasant (Thawmalea amherstie), which has its plu- 
mage shaped like that of the Gold Pheasant, but is far more 
delicate and refined in its coloration ; while the Chinese Reeves’s 
Pheasant (Phasianus reevesii) has by far the longest tail. 
The wonderful Argus Pheasant (Argus giganteus) would be 
remarkable also for its length of tail were not this peculiarity 
overshadowed by its enormous wings, the feathers of which are 
decorated with a multitude of beautiful eye-like spots. Its 
wings are rather for parade than use, as the bird can only fly 
with them for short distances with a heavy flight. It frequents 
the thickest jungles, and is, therefore, but very rarely seen, even 
by the natives of the Indo-Malayan region it inhabits. 
The last-named region and the Himalayas produce the 
beautiful Peacock Pheasants (e. g., Polyplectron bicalcaratum), 
which have not only the wings, but also the back and tail, covered 
with lovely eye-like spots. The true Peacocks—of which there 
* In Zoology (and therefore in that branch of it with which we are con- 
cerned—viz., Ornithology) each kind of creature has a name formed of two 
words. The first (e.g. Gallus) indicates to which smaller group or “ genus ” 
the creature belongs. |The second word (e. g. bankiva) denotes which species 
it is of such genus. This is like the Christian and surname of a man, only 
with the surname standing first. 
