4'. 14 NATURAL HISTORY. 



into the ring, which the native skilfully barricades, except the one spot 

 where he sets his snare." 



In treating of the true pheasants words utterly fail. No pen can 

 convey the slightest idea of their unequalled beauty, no brush can repro- 

 duce the brilliancy of their plumage. The brightest and most vivid of 

 reds and greens, the most polished silver and gold, is lavishly spread over 

 their bodies. Of the plainer forms, the well-known English pheasant is 

 best known. This is not a native of England, but was brought by the 

 Greeks from Colchis ages ago, and it is probable that it was introduced 

 into the British Isles by the Roman concruerors. There is a record of it 

 there in the year 1059. Of the monals almost nothing is known, except 

 the birds themselves. They have about the same range as the tragopans, 

 but are even more beautiful than they. 



Of another style of beauty are the silver pheasants, forest birds with 

 white or silvery backs ; the firebacks in which, as the name indicates, the 

 back is of a brilliant fiery red ; and the wonderful golden pheasants and 

 their near relatives, the Lady Amherst pheasant, which our cut displays 

 as well as black and white can do it. Its peculiar ruff is white, banded 

 with deep green, the rump a golden yellow, its breast a bright, iridescent, 

 metallic green, and the extremely elongate tail-feathers banded and 

 mottled gray, green, and black. But little is known of their habits. 

 They dwell on the mountains and in the deep forests, where the white 

 man rarely penetrates, and are peculiarly hardy. They usually go in 

 small flocks. 



Less beautiful, but still far from ordinary birds, are the jungle-fowl of 

 southeastern Asia. The most brilliantly colored and elaborately plumaged 

 of our domestic chanticleers resembles, but does not excel, the jungle-fowl. 

 The resemblance is a natural one ; for there now exists but little doubt 

 that our familiar barnyard fowl is one of these jungle-fowl modified by a 

 long life of domestication. From them, too, they derive their pugnacity ; 

 for in the jungle they fight as hard as do the best of the game-cocks of 

 so-called civilization. Haeckel describes the jungle-fowl of Ceylon as 

 follows : — 



" The melancholy cries of some birds, particularly the green wood- 

 pigeons and bee-eaters, are rarely heard except at early dawn ; at a later 

 hour the brilliant jungle-fowl is the only bird that breaks the silence. 

 This gorgeous species appears to be nearly related to the first parent 

 of our domestic fowl. The cock is conspicuous for his gaudy and bril- 

 liant plumage; fine orange-brown ruff, and green sickle-shaped tail- 

 feathers ; while the hen is bedecked in a modest grayish brown. The 

 sonorous call of this wild fowl, fuller and more tuneful than the crow of 



