CHAPTER VII THE GAME-BIRDS (continued] 

 Pheasant Partridge : grey, red-legged Quail. 



THE PHEASANT. 



THE Western World is indebted to Asia for many 

 good things, not least among which is the 

 pheasant. The exact date of the introduction of this 

 bird into Great Britain cannot be traced, although it is 

 generally considered that the Romans brought it over 

 some time during their occupation. The pheasant 

 originally introduced was the dark, ringless species 

 known as Phasianus colchicus. Some hundreds of years 

 later the Chinese ring-necked bird, P. torquatus, was 

 imported, and these two kinds, as also in some districts 

 the still more recently acquired species, the Japanese 

 green pheasant, P. versicolor, have interbred to such an 

 extent that pure types of any of them are now somewhat 

 rare. 



Several other forms of the genus Phasianus, some of 

 which are very closely allied to the above, are frequently 

 seen in this country. Among these may be mentioned 

 the Chinese ringless, P. decollatus ; the Formosan, P. 

 formosanus ; and the Mongolian pheasant, P. mongolicus, 

 a ring-necked bird that is held in considerable estimation 

 by North-American acclimatizers of these game-birds. 

 There is also the extremely wild Turkestan pheasant, 



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