278 PHASIANIDE. 



Phasianus. Generic Characters. — Bill of moderate length, strong; upper 

 mandible convex, naked at the base, and with the tip bent downwards. Nos- 

 trils basal, lateral, covered with a cartilaginous scale; cheeks, and the skin 

 surrounding the eyes, destitute of feathers, and with a verrucose red covering. 

 Wings short : the first quill-feather narrow towards the tip ; the fourth and 

 fifth feathers the longest in the wing. Tail long, wedge-shaped, graduated, 

 containing eighteen feathers. Feet — three toes in front, one behind ; the three 

 anterior toes united by a membrane as far as the first joint ; the hind toe articu- 

 lated upon the tarsus, which in the male birds is furnished with a horny, coni- 

 cal, and sharp spur. 



Daniels, in his Rural Sports, says, Pheasants were 

 brought into Europe by the Argonauts 1250 years before the 

 Christian sera, and are at present found in a state of nature 

 in nearly the whole of the Old Continent. It may surprise 

 the sportsman to read that this bird, which he finds Avild in 

 forests which can scarcely be said to have an owner, was 

 brought from the banks of the Pliasis, a river in Colchis in 

 Asia Minor, and artificially propagated with us, and in other 

 parts of the globe. History assigns to Jason the honour of 

 having brought this bird, on his celebrated expedition, from 

 the banks of the Phasis, and hence the modifications of the 

 word, viz. — Phasianus in Latin, Pheasant in our own lan- 

 guage, Faisan in French, and Fasiano in Italian. The an- 

 cient. Colchis, from which the specific name is derived, is the 

 Mingrelia of the present day ; and there, it is said, this splen- 

 did bird is still to be found wild, and unequalled in beauty. 

 The price Pheasants bore, according to Echard's History of 

 England, A.D. 1299, being the 27th of the reign of Edward 

 the First, was fourpence : at the same period the value of a 

 Mallard was three halfpence, a Plover one penny, and a 

 couple of Woodcocks three halfpence. 



Extensively diffused in England as far north as over the 

 whole county of Northumberland, Mr. Selby yet observes in 

 his work, that although the Pheasant has been for such a 

 length of time a naturalised inhabitant of this country, the 

 cause of its preservation must be referred, not so much to 



