112 



PHASIANIDJE. 



THE birds we have noticed, are all the species of Te- 

 tronidce^ whether indigenous or naturalised, which 

 have any claim to a place in our fauna. Of the 

 next family, the Phasianidce, Europe presents no 

 natural example ; but one of the finest and most suc- 

 cessful of all our ornithological introductions, typi- 

 cally represents it in 



THE COMMON PHEASANT, PHASIANUS COLCHICUS. 

 It is recorded to have been introduced into Europe 

 1 250 years before the Christian era ; * and into Bri- 

 tain in 1299, during the reign of Edward the First, t 

 From its ease in rearing, the beauty of its plumage, 

 the delicacy of its flesh, and value in cover to the 

 sportsman, it has been, since that early period, 

 fostered and preserved, and turned out from one 

 locality to another ; and, at the present time, there 

 are few districts to the south of the middle of Scot- 

 land, or over England, where it is not to be met 

 with in greater or less proportion. In Ireland we 

 believe its distribution to be not so equal, owing to 

 the impossibility of preservation. In Europe, or 

 wherever they have been introduced, we have two 

 birds of different plumage, the one with a conspi- 

 cuous white ring upon the neck, the other wanting 

 entirely that ornament. These, in our preserves, 

 * Daniel's Rural Sports. f Echard's Hist, of England. 



