THE TRUE PHEASANTS. © 9 
with one another in captivity, or when they have been arti- 
ficially brought into the same neighbourhood, and in the 
majority of cases at least the hybrids produced are perfectly 
fertile. In this country it is now almost impossible to find 
quite pure-bred examples of what is commonly called “the 
old English Pheasant” (P. colchicus), for the Chinese ringed 
species (7. torguatus), which was subsequently introduced, has 
crossed with it everywhere, and almost all the birds now met 
with are hybrids, displaying the characters of both species in a 
greater or lesser degree. 
1. Crown of the head green or greenish-bronze , general colour 
of the lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts maroon 
or reddish-bronze, glossed with purple or green ; with no 
white ring round the neck, or with only traces of one. 
I. THE COMMON PHEASANT. PHASIANUS COLCHICUS. 
Phastanus colchicus, Linn. 8. N.1. p. 271 (1766) ; Gould, B. 
Europe, pl. 247 (1837); id. B. Asia, vii. pl. 34 (1869) ; 
Elliot, Monogr. Phasian. ii. pl. 2 (1872); Dresser, B. 
Europe, vii. p. 85, pl. 469 (1879) ; Ogilvie-Grant, Cat. B. 
Brit. Mus. xxil. p. 320 (1893).* 
Phasianus colchicus septentrionalis, Lorenz, J. f. O. 1888, p. 
572. 
Adult Male-t—Crown of the head bronze-green ; rest of the 
head and neck dark green, shading into purple on the sides 
and front of the neck. Teathers of the mantle, chest, breast, 
and flanks fiery orange, the former narrowly margined with 
purplish-green, the latter widely edged with rich purple ; those 
of the upper back and scapulars mottled in the middle with 
black and buff, margined by consecutive bands of buff, black 
and orange-red, and tipped with purplish-lake. Lower back, 
rump, and upper tail-coverts ved-maroon, glossed with purplish- 
* Cf. also ‘‘ Fur and Feather ” Series, 8vo, 1895. 
¢ It has been found necessary to give this rather full description of pure- 
bred male and female birds for purposes of comparison, 
