PHEASANTS 



FOE COVERTS AND AVIARIES. 



CHAPTEE I 



NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PHEASANTS. 



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STRUCTURE, FOOD, AND HABITS. 



I HE PHEASANTS, properly so called (as dis- 

 tinguished from tlie allied but perfectly distinct 

 genera wliicli include the Gold and Silver pheasants, 



the Kaleege, the Monaul, &c.), constitute the genus or 



group known to naturalists under the title Phasianus. 



Of the true pheasants no less than thirteen distinct 

 species have been described by Mr.. D. Gr. Elliott, in his 

 splendid folio monograph on the Phasianidue. Of thesv- 

 several are knoAvn only by rare specimens of their skins 

 brought from little explored Asiatic countries^ and others 

 cannot be regarded as anything more than mere local or 

 geographical varieties of well known species. Since the 

 publication of Elliott's Pliasianidce several additional species 

 have been described. 



Mr. Ogilvie-Grant in his valuable '^Handbook on Game 

 Birds " published in Allen's " Natural History " enumerates 

 no less than eighteen species of true pheasants belonging to 

 the genus Phasianus, of which he takes the common species, 

 Phasianus colcliicus, as the type, and additional species have 



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