PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. 



since been described by Mr. H. E. Dresser and the Hon. 

 Walter Rothschild. (See list at end of Chapter, p. 22.) 



Without including, however, such birds as have, from 

 their rarity or other causes, no practical interest to English 

 game preservers, there remain several well-known species 

 that will require our careful consideration. Such are : The 

 common pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) , now generally diffused 

 throughout southern and central Europe ; the Chinese 

 (P. torquatus) ; the Japanese (P. versicolor) ; and Reeves' s 

 pheasant (P. reevesii). These, however, are so closely related 

 in structure, form, and habits, that their natural history and 

 general management may be given once for all, and their 

 distinctive peculiarities pointed out subsequently. 



The pheasants constituting the genus Phasianus are 

 readily distinguished by their tail feathers, which are eighteen 

 in number, the middle pair being much the longest, and these 

 attain their maximum development in the Reeves pheasant, 

 reaching in that species to a length exceeding five or six feet. 

 They are all destitute of feathered crests or fleshy combs, but 

 are furnished with small tufts of feathers behind the eyes. 

 In their native state they are essentially forest birds, fre- 

 quenting the margins of wood, coming into the open tracts 

 in search of food, and retreating into the thick underwood at 

 the slightest cause for alarm. The common pheasant, which 

 has been introduced from its native country, Asia Minor, for 

 upwards of a thousand years, though spread over the greater 

 part of Europe, and more recently introduced into North 

 America, Australia, and New Zealand, still retains its 

 primitive habits. 



"It is," says Naumann, in his work on the " Birds of 

 Germany," " certainly a forest bird, but not in the truest 

 sense of the term; for neither does it inhabit the densely 

 wooded districts, nor the depths of the mixed forest, unless 

 driven to do so. Small pieces of grove, where deep under- 

 bush and high grass grow between the trees, where thorn 

 hedges, berry-growing bushes, and water overgrown with 



