2192 THE GAME BIRDS AND RAILS 



young birds, which keep pretty well collected till near the end of the winter, they 

 seldom congregate much together." Unlike the great majority of their kind, these 

 birds do not separate after the business of incubation is over, and probably pair for 

 life, since at whatever season one is found, its mate is sure to be met with some- 

 where near. Their flight is extremely rapid, more so than that of any other Hima- 

 layan pheasant, and when they dart down the side of the mountains it requires an 

 experienced shot to stop them. The nest is placed at the root of a tree, or under 

 some overhanging tuft of grass, and contains from five to nine eggs, resembling 

 those of the monal in color. 



Before mentioning the true pheasants, it may be observed that the 

 U p well-known chir pheasant ( Catreus wallichi ) , from the middle ranges 



of the Himalayas, alone represents an allied genus. Resembling in 

 general form and the shape of the tail the true pheasants, it lacks the bright metallic 

 plumage of those birds, while the wing is of the monal type, with the first primary 

 shorter than the tenth, the head being adorned with a full large crest, most 

 developed in the males. Inhabitants of low-lying wooded valleys, and including 

 about a couple of dozen of gorgeously -colored species and varieties, the true 

 pheasants range from Southeastern Europe across Central Asia to Japan and 

 Formosa. As already pointed out, the wing in all these birds is partridge-like, and 

 differs from the characteristic monal type, the first flight feather being much longer 

 than the tenth; but, unlike the partridges, the tail is long and wedge shaped 

 much longer than the wing. The sides of the head are naked, and there is no crest; 

 but the ear tufts are considerably lengthened in the male, and the legs are armed 

 with a pair of sharp spurs. The home of the common pheasant (Phasianus colchi- 

 cus} is Southeastern Europe and Asia Minor, although the bird has for many cen- 

 turies been established in Great Britain and various parts of the Continent to the 

 west of its original habitat. The male has the top of the head bronze green, and 

 the rest of the head and neck dark green, shading into purple on the sides and front 

 of the latter; the mantle, chest, breast, and flanks are fiery orange red with a pur- 

 plish green margin to each feather, the middle of the back and scapulars mottled 

 and beautifully patterned with buff, black, and orange red, the lower back and tail 

 coverts red, glossed with purplish lake, and the wing coverts sandy brown. The 

 middle of the breast and sides of the under parts are glossed with dark purplish 

 green, the rest of the under parts being brown mixed with rufous; the tail feathers 

 are light olive green, the middle pair being barred along the middle with black; 

 the naked skin on the sides of the face is scarlet vermilion, and the legs and feet 

 are brownish horn color. The female is mostly sandy brown, marked and barred 

 with black and buff, shading into chestnut on the mantle and sides of the breast. 



The majority of the species allied to the common pheasant may be divided 

 into two groups, namely, those inhabiting that part of Central Asia west of the 

 meridian of Calcutta, which have the rump and upper tail coverts maroon or rufous, 

 sometimes glossed with green ; while in all the forms found to the eastward of that 

 line these parts are greenish or bluish slate color. In the most westerly forms of 

 the first group, such as the common pheasant and the nearly-allied Persian pheasant 

 (/*. persiciis), which differs in having the wing coverts white, and inhabits the 



