70 



TYPES OF ANIMAL LIFE 



cock are the wings of the Argus pheasant. Though the 

 body of the bird is not much larger than that of a fowl, 

 the wings are each nearly three feet long, and so wide 

 as to be of quite unwieldy size for flight, while the tail 

 feathers are nearly a yard in extent. But it is the' eye- 

 like spots on its wings which are the most remarkable. 

 A series of these, ornament each long wing feather, and 

 when the large wings are expanded so that all their eyes 

 are displayed (as they are in time of courtship), the 

 effect is wonderful. 



Fig. 19. 



LADY AMHERST S PHEASANT. 



A smaller but still more beautiful bird is the peacock 

 pheasant (Fig. 18), which has its tail as well as its wings 

 covered with " eye spots." 



The common pheasant never at any time was a really 

 wild bird in the British islands, but was introduced into 

 England at so early a date that it figured at feasts 

 on the tables of our Saxon kings. Its true home seems 

 to have been between the south of the Caspian and 

 Black Seas. It is still wild in that vicinity, in the 

 valleys of the Caucasus, the northern parts of Asia 

 Minor, and in Corsica. 



In Southern and Central Asia there are as many as 

 chirty-five different kinds of pheasants, the most beauti- 

 ful of which is Lady Amherst's pheasant, the plumes 



