12 GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL. 



pheasant were originally introduced into this 

 country ; the Colchican from Asia Minor, and the 

 ring-necked from China. The latter was the 

 less robust of the two, and, besides other well- 

 marked distinctions of plumage, was characterised 

 by a white ring round the neck. In process of 

 time the Colchican increased and multiplied, 

 while the Chinaman diminished in an equal ratio. 

 It is said, however, that they bred freely toge- 

 ther, and that the former, being the more 

 powerful, gradually absorbed the other, while 

 the white collar, that still adorns the necks 

 of many of our modern pheasants, is all that 

 remains of the plumage of their remote ances- 

 tors. 



A friend of mine, whose residence adjoins an 

 ancient building, under the massive eaves of 

 which great numbers of swifts annually rear their 

 young, has observed that previous to their ar- 

 rival in the beginning of May, the air overhead 

 is filled with swallows and martins at all hours of 

 the day, but as soon as the swifts have regularly 

 taken possession of their summer quarters, their 

 smaller congeners retire from the immediate 

 neighbourhood ; scarcely an individual is to be 

 seen there during that season, while the shrill 

 notes of the 'screecher' resound from morning 

 till night. About the middle of August the 



