MISCELLANEOUS REMARKS. 121 



any two pheasants we see hanging side by side in a 

 poulterer's shop are alike. After repeated efforts and 

 wearisome delay, I have at last, by the assistance of 

 kind friends, obtained from their original home on the 

 Phasis or Rion river the true bird ; it is a very dark, 

 rich colour, of course ringless, and having a saddle of 

 dark red feathers, with a tint almost maroon on them ; 

 the tail has the markings more blotched than our 

 birds, and is a coppery colour. I find it has not the 

 black breast so often said to be indicative of our old 

 stock ; it is only black on the lower part of the breast. 

 They are fine, upstanding birds, with very good 

 carriage, clean built shoulders, and look like flying 

 well ; they are exactly like a skin in my possession 

 of a bird that was exhibited at a meeting of the 

 Zoological Society last year, and was shot in Trans- 

 Caucasia by a correspondent of the Field, and which 

 was then pronounced to be the true colchicus. I had 

 my first lot of birds last autumn, and have recently 

 obtained another importation, but, as is generally the 

 case, more males than females ; these last are those 

 that have only just arrived. I hope I may be fortu- 

 nate enough to breed from them this year, as I feel 

 sure they will prove a boon to farm preserves, by 

 crossing the cocks with the purest dark birds of our 

 present stock ; we shall then, to a certain extent, get 

 out of the Chinese, a wanderer, and in every way 

 inferior to the old race, whether for sport or table. I 

 hope to acquire a specimen of this new Jubilee 



