PHEASANT. 445 



PHASIANUS COLCHICUS. 

 PHEASANT. 



(PLATE 21.) 



Phasianus phasianus, Briss. Orn. i. p. 202 (1760). 



Phasianus colchicus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 271 (1766) ; et auctorum plurimorum 



Latham, Temminck, Naumann, Dresser, Sounders, &c. 

 Phasianus marginatus, Wolf, Taschenb. i. p. 291 (1810). 



The Pheasant never was a really wild bird in the British Islands, 

 although to all appearances it is so at the present time ; but it is an abuse 

 of terms to call any bird wild whose existence is entirely dependent on the 

 protection of keepers. The date of its introduction to this country is 

 unknown. Pheasants appear in the bills of fare as far back as these have 

 been handed down to us, even in the times of the Saxon kings before the 

 Norman conquest, from which circumstance it has been inferred that they 

 were introduced by "the Romans ; but this hypothesis is of course purely 

 guess-work. Little or no interest attaches to the distribution of the 

 Pheasant in the British Islands, as there appears to be no part of the 

 United Kingdom, even to the Outer Hebrides, where they have not been 

 introduced, and' where they are not found in a more or less semi-domesti- 

 cated state. The protection of sufficiently extensive cover, together with 

 more or less regular artificial feeding in frosty weather, seems to be all 

 that is required. 



The Common Pheasant has been acclimatized in most parts of Europe; 

 but its true home appears to be in the extreme west of Asia, in the western 

 portions of the basin of the Caspian Sea, and the southern and eastern 

 portions of the basin of the Black Sea. In a wild state it is a common 

 resident in the valleys of the Caucasus up to an elevation of 3000 feet ; 

 along the shores of the Caspian from the delta of the Volga in the north 

 to as far east as Asterabad on the southern shores ; in the northern parts 

 of Asia Minor as far south as Ephesus ; and, curiously enough, on the 

 island of Corsica. It has been introduced and now lives in a wild or 

 semi-domesticated state in every country in Europe, with the exception of 

 Spain and Portugal and the northern parts of Scandinavia and Russia. 



The Pheasant has several very near allies, the geographical distribution 

 of which has puzzled many ornithologists from the anomalies which it 

 appears at first sight to present. These difficulties, however, may be 

 disposed of in two ways. We may either assume that the white neck- 

 collar in all the examples west of China is the result of the migration or 

 importation of East-Chinese birds, which have interbred with the resident 



