7i6 PHILIP PHOEBE 



that colour that in certain lights pervades almost the whole of its 

 plumage, and, deepening into dark emerald, occupies all the breast 

 and lower surface that in the common and Chinese birds is bay 

 barred with glossy black scallops. Both of these species have been 

 to a considerable extent introduced into England, and cross freely 

 with P. colchicus, while the hybrids of each with the older inhabit- 

 ants of the woods are not only perfectly fertile inter se, but cross 

 as freely with the other hybrids, so that birds are frequently found 

 in which the blood of the three species is mingled. The hybrids of 

 the first cross are generally larger than either of their parents, but 

 the superiority of size does not seem to be maintained by their 

 descendants. White and pied varieties of the common Pheasant, 

 as of most birds, often occur, and with a little care a race or breed 

 of each can be perpetuated. A much rarer variety is sometimes 

 seen ; this is known as the Bohemian Pheasant, not that there is 

 the least reason to suppose it has any right to such an epithet, for 

 it appears, as it were, accidentally among a stock of the pure P. 

 cokhicus, and offers an example analogous to that of the " japanned " 

 PEACOCK already noticed, being, like that breed, capable of per- 

 petuation by selection. To a small extent two other species of 

 Pheasant have been introduced to the coverts of England P. 

 reevesi from China, remarkable for its very long tail, white with 

 black bars, 1 and the Copper Pheasant, P. scemmerringi, from Japan. 

 The well-known Gold and Silver Pheasants, Thaumalea picta and 

 Euplocamus nycthemerus, are both from China and have long been 

 introduced into Europe, but are only fitted for the aviary. To the 

 former is allied the still more beautiful T. amlierstise and to the 

 latter about a dozen more species, most of them known to Indian 

 sportsmen by the general name of KALLEGE. These with the 

 comparatively plain PUKRAS, Pucrasia, the magnificent MONALS, 

 Lophophorus, are elsewhere treated, but the fine Snow -Pheasants, 

 Crossoptilum, of which there are several species, must, for want of 

 space, be only mentioned here. All the species known at the time 

 were beautifully figured from drawings by Mr. Wolf in Mr. Elliot's 

 grand Monograph of the Phasianidse (2 vols. fol. 1870-72) the last 

 term being used in a somewhat general sense. With a more precise 

 scope Mr. Tegetmeier's Pheasants : their Natural History and Practical 

 Management (4to, ed. 2, 1881) is to be commended as a very useful 

 work. 



PHILIP and PHILP, old nicknames for the SPARROW (see 

 page 132, note 1). 



PHOEBE, in parts of North America a name for what is there 

 called also the PEWIT, Sayornis fusca, one of the TYRANT-BIRDS. 



1 The introduction of this species by the first Lord Tweedmouth near 

 Guisachan in Inverness-shire is said to have been remarkably successful. 



