PHEASANTS, 425 



end of the winter, they seldom congregate much together." Unlike the great 

 majority of their kind, these birds do not separate after the business of incubation 

 is over, and probably pair for life, since at whatever season one is found, its mate is 

 sure to be met with somewhere near. Their flight is extremely rapid, more so 

 than that of any other Himalayan pheasant, and when they dart down the side of 

 the mountains it requires an experienced shot to stop them. The nest is placed at 

 the root of a tree, or under some overhanging tuft of grass, and contains from five 

 to nine eggs, resembling those of the monal in colour. 



Before mentioning the true pheasants, it may be observed that 

 ' the well-known chir-pheasant (Catreus wallichi), from the middle 

 ranges of the Himalaya, alone represents an allied genus. Eesembling in general 

 form and the shape of the tail the true pheasants, it lacks the bright metallic 

 plumage of those birds, while the wing is of the monal type, with the first primary 

 shorter than the tenth ; the head being adorned with a full large crest, most 

 developed in the males. Inhabitants of low-lying wooded valleys, and including 

 about a couple of dozen of gorgeously -coloured species and varieties, the true 

 pheasants range from South-Eastern Europe across Central Asia to Japan and 

 Formosa. As already pointed out, the wing in all these birds is partridge-like, and 

 differs from the characteristic monal type, the first flight-feather being much longer 

 than the tenth ; but, unlike the partridges, the tail is long and wedge-shaped 

 much longer than the wing. The sides of the head are naked, and there is no 

 crest ; but the ear-tufts are considerably lengthened in the male, and the legs are 

 armed with a pair of sharp spurs. The home of the common pheasant (Phasianus 

 colchicus)is South-Eastern Europe and Asia Minor, although the bird has for many 

 centuries been established in Great Britain and various parts of the Continent to 

 the west of its original habitat. The male has the top of the head bronze-green, 

 and the rest of the head and neck dark green, shading into purple on the sides and 

 front of the latter ; the mantle, chest, breast, and flanks are fiery orange-red with 

 a purplish green margin to each feather ; the middle of the back and scapulars 

 mottled and beautifully patterned with buff, black, and orange-red ; the lower back 

 and tail-coverts red, glossed with purplish lake ; and the wing-coverts sandy brown. 

 The middle of the breast and sides of the under-parts are glossed with dark purplish 

 green, the rest of the under-parts being brown mixed with rufous ; the tail-feathers 

 are light olive-green, the middle pair being barred along the middle with black ; 

 the naked skin on the sides of the face is scarlet- vermilion ; and the legs and feet 

 are brownish horn colour. The female is mostly sandy brown, marked and barred 

 with black and buff, shading into chestnut on the mantle and sides of the breast. 



The majority of the species allied to the common pheasant may be divided 

 into two groups, namely, those inhabiting that part of Central Asia west of the 

 meridian of Calcutta, which have the rump and upper tail-coverts maroon or rufous, 

 sometimes glossed with green ; while in all the forms found to the eastward of that 

 line these parts are greenish or bluish slate-colour. In the most westerly forms of 

 the first group, such as the common pheasant and the nearly-allied Persian pheasant 

 (P. persicus), which differs in having the wing-coverts white, and inhabits the 

 valleys to the south-east of the Caspian, there is no white ring on the neck, but 

 as we go eastwards we find other species, such as Severtzow's pheasant (P. 



