COMMON PHEASANT. 321 



Phasianus Cokhicus, Common Pheasant, SELBY, Brit.Ornith. vol. i.p.417. 

 JEXYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 166. 



,, GOULD, Birds of Europe. 



Faisan vulgaire, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. 



p. 453. 



PHASIANUS. Generic Characters. Bill of moderate length, strong; 

 upper mandible convex, naked at the base, and with the tip bent down- 

 wards. Xostrils basal, lateral, covered with a cartilaginous scale; cheeks, 

 and the skin surrounding the eyes, destitute of feathers, and with a verru- 

 cose 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 articulated upon the tarsus, which in the 

 male birds is furnished with a horny, conical, and sharp spur. 



DANIELS, in his Rural Sports, says Pheasants were 

 brought into Europe by the Argonauts 1250 years before 

 the Christian aera, 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 wild in forests which can scarcely be said to have an 

 owner, was brought from the banks of the Phasis, 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 cele- 

 brated expedition, from the banks of the Phasis, and hence 

 the modifications of the word, viz. Phasianus in Latin, 

 Pheasant in our own language, Faisan in French, and 

 Fasiano in Italian. The ancient Colchis, from which the 

 specific name is derived, is the Mingrelia of the present 

 day, a country between the Black and the Caspian Seas ; 

 and there, it is said, this splendid 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 



VOL. n. Y 



