188 BIRDS OF CHESHIRE. 
FAMILY PHASIANID. 
PHEASANT. 
PHASIANUS COLCHICUS (Linnzus). 
PHASIANUS TORQUATUS, Gmelin. 
Except in Upper Longdendale and in those parts of 
the hills east of Macclesfield where there is no suitable 
cover, the Pheasant is extensively preserved and exists 
everywhere in a semi-domesticated condition. Hand- 
reared birds are turned down in thousands in woods 
and coverts which are maintained and often planted 
solely for their benefit. Everything is done to destroy 
their natural enemies, and from first to last theirs is 
an artificial existence. To a naturalist, perhaps the 
Pheasant is most interesting as a factor in the economy 
of other creatures; for whereas those which are, or are 
considered to be, inimical to its interests are rigorously 
persecuted, others benefit equally with the Pheasant by 
the destruction of predatory creatures, and obtain the 
food and seclusion they require in the strictly preserved 
coverts. 
In recent years the increase of the Ring-necked species 
(P. torquatus) has become increasingly apparent, and the 
true P. colchicus is practically extinct. All the birds one 
sees are either pure-bred P. torquatus or are influenced 
to a great extent by its interbreeding with the older form. 
Colonel Dixon has in his collection at Astle a dark- 
coloured bird, a hybrid between a Pheasant and a Black 
Spanish Fowl; and in the Grosvenor Museum, Chester, 
there is another curious hybrid that was shot at Haton 
on January 12th, 1897. It is the offspring of a male 
Plymouth Rock Fowl and a female Pheasant. 
