PHEASANT. 225 



from Brisson, by the following terms : " TJiis is 

 a mixed breed between the Pheasant and Cock ; 

 a circumstance which frequently happens where 

 farm-yards are adjoining to woods where Pheasants 

 abound : the eyes are surrounded with a red skin, 

 and a few spots of white on the crown of the 

 head : upper part of the back rufous, varied with 

 brown and white ; from thence to the tail ash- 

 colour, crossed with black : belly, thighs, and 

 under tail-coverts, pale brown, ash-colour, and 

 dusky, mixed : Wing-coverts much like the back : 

 greater quills pale brown ; the lesser white, varied 

 without with black, and within black edged with 

 rufous : tail black in the middle : bill and legs 

 grey.'* Another hybrid is described by Tem- 

 minck, between the male Painted Pheasant and 

 the female of the common one : this possesses the 

 brilliant plumage of the former bird, and is thus 

 noticed : its length is about three feet : its head is 

 crested, and this part is composed of feathers with 

 disunited webs, of a rufous-red colour, slightly 

 tipped with violet : the feathers which rise beneath 

 the occiput, and those that reach in a fascia from 

 that to the neck, are of a reddish yellow at their 

 base, and purple-violet towards their tips : the 

 whole of the feathers of the neck are purple-violet, 

 with fine green-gold reflections : those of the top 

 of the back are deep green at their origin, then of 

 a fiery red, and tipped with a circle of beautiful 

 purple-violet : the whole of the under parts are of 

 a bright fiery red ; the back and the scapulars are 

 the same, with the bases of all tlve feathers black, 

 v. xi. p. i. 15 



