38 THE PHEASANT SUBFAMILY 



shading into sandy olive at the sides, and barred with buff and black. The 

 juvenile plumage resembles that of the female, but differs in its duller hues, the 

 upper parts being of a dull black relieved by loops of buff formed by the margins 

 of the feathers. The under parts are of a pale buff, more or less conspicuously 

 barred on the fore-neck with dull black. The vinous and chestnut tints of the 

 adult female are wanting. The downy young has a patch of pale chestnut on the 

 crown enclosed within a more or less distinct loop of greyish black, the free ends 

 of the loop turned backwards. A patch of black marks the aperture of the ear, 

 and is continued back as a short wavy line to the nape. The back is of a pale 

 chestnut with a median band of dark chocolate on each side. The rest of the 

 plumage is pale buff. The area of the future face-wattle is demarcated by a 

 narrow line of bare skin. Pure-bred birds of this species are now almost, if 

 not quite, extinct in these islands, and this owing to the introduction of, 

 and interbreeding with, three other species, two of which are characterised 

 by the presence of a white ring round the neck. The salient features of the 

 males of these three species are as follows : P. c. torquatus, with the lower back, 

 rump, and upper tail-coverts bluish slate colour, and a rust-coloured patch on each 

 side. P. c. mongolicus, with a very broad white ring, interrupted in front, white wing- 

 coverts, and the lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts maroon or reddish bronze. 

 P. c. versicolor, differing from P. c. torquatus in having no white ring and the whole 

 of the under parts dark green ; and the mantle dark green shot with purple, each 

 feather marked with concentric lines of buff. [w. P. P.] 



2. Distribution. The pheasant has been naturalised in England from a 

 period before the Norman invasion, and, according to tradition, it is to the Romans 

 that we owe its presence among us. It is found in a semi-wild condition in nearly 

 every part of England, and locally in Wales ; but in Scotland, though artificially 

 reared in many places, it seems only to thrive in a wild state in Perth, Forfar, 

 Wigtown, Aberdeen, and Moray, though it has been introduced even to the Outer 

 Hebrides. In Ireland it breeds in every county. Its original home seems to have 

 been Asia Minor and Transcaucasia, but it has been wild for centuries in Corsica, 

 and the Balkan Peninsula is probably within its natural range, while it has been 

 introduced into nearly every European country as well as into America. In modern 

 times so many forms have been turned down, in order to introduce fresh blood, 

 that the old race has died out almost altogether. P. colchicus torquatus, of which 

 most of our birds now show traces, is a Chinese race, inhabiting Central and South 

 China, and was introduced early in the nineteenth century. Of late years P. c. 



