THE COMMON PHEASANT. 165 



toe i, its claw T 4 Y ; second toe 1^-, its claw T \ ; third toe 

 its claw T 7 T ; fourth toe 1 T V, its claw -fj." 



Several well-marked and perfectly permanent varieties of 

 this species are not uncommon. One of the best known is 

 the so-called Bohemian pheasant, in which the entire plumage 

 is much less glossy, the general ground-colour being of a 

 creamy tint ; the head, nefck, and spanglings on the breast 

 and tail showing the dark markings in varying degrees of 

 intensity in different specimens. The appearance of this 

 variety is admirably given in the engraving. The Bohemian 

 pheasant is occasionally produced from the common form in 

 different localities, the variation is hereditary, and may be 

 propagated by careful selection of brood stock. Thus 

 Stevenson, in his "Birds of Norfolk" (vol. I., p. 368), 

 informs us that in that county, like certain light varieties 

 of the common partridge, they are confined to particular 

 localities : " They have been found in different seasons in 

 some cverts at Cranmer ; and in the autumn of 1861 I saw 

 three h'ue examples killed, i believe, in Mr. Hardcastle's 

 preserves at Hanworth, near Cromer, one of which, even in its 

 abnormal plumage, showed a decided relationship to the 

 Ring-necked cross by the white mark on either &ide of the 

 neck" a circumstance also noticed by Macgillivray. 



Purely white varieties of the common pheasant occur 

 annually in various coverts without any apparent cause. A 

 correspondent, who has been a pheasant rearer for thirty 

 years, writes : " Four years ago a nest of thirteen v eggs was 

 brought in by the mowers. All the eggs were hatched ; 

 eleven were perfectly white birds, the other two the common 

 colour. Nine of the white birds were reared six cocks and 

 three hens; three cocks were turned out, the others were 

 kept in the pheasantry, pinioned. The white pheasants 

 proved very bad layers very delicate, their eggs very bad ; 

 and those that were hatched very difficult to rear, and there 

 never was a white bird bred. The extraordinary thing is, 

 that where the nest was taken up the keepers had never 



