156 PHEASANTS FOB COVERTS AND AVIARIES. 



toe \, its claw -5^ ; second toe l^, its claw xV ; third toe lyf , 

 its claw yV ; fourth toe lyV; its claw yV-" 



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 Avliich the entire plumage 

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

 creamy tint ; the head, neck, and spangliogs 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 Steven- 

 son, in his " Birds of Norfolk," informed 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 coverts at Cranmer; and 

 in the autumn of 1861 I saw three fine examples killed, I 

 believe, in Mrs. 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 side of the neck " — a circumstance also 

 noticed by Macgillivray. 



A purely white variety of the common pheasant occa- 

 sionally occurs in the coverts without any apparent cause. A 

 correspondent, who has been a pheasant rearer for thirty 

 years, writes : — " Four years ago a nest of thirteen 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 



