VARIETIES AND SPECIES OF THE PHEASANT 269 



is apt not to recognise the boundary fence, and may go 20 miles 

 on end. If this is not an exaggeration, and probably it is, the 

 Reeves pheasant would be a most objectionable bird. But in 

 wild countries like Wales and Scotland, where there are hills 

 and hill coverts, there seems to be no doubt that the Reeves 

 would beat the English bird, not only in hardihood and self- 

 reproduction, but also in flying to the guns both faster and 

 higher than the common pheasant. It is a bird that prefers 

 to run up hill, in contradistinction to the instinct of preservation 

 that induces the type race of bird to run down hill. The 

 Hon. Walter Rothschild has spent more time and money on 

 the pheasant family than anyone else, and probably he is 

 the very best judge of what would acclimatise with advantage 

 and what would not. With the reservation, then, that the 

 author does not believe in still further mongrelising the half 

 bred of our coverts, it is proposed to summarise Mr. Rothschild's 

 opinion. 



The pheasants form but one section of the family 

 Phasianidae, the second of the four families of the Gallinae. 

 The limitations of natural history are set forth by Mr. 

 Rothschild when he says that structurally it is impossible to 

 separate the partridges and the pheasants, and that the spur- 

 fowls (Galloperdix) and the bamboo partridges (Bambusicola) 

 form connecting links. How true this is may be gathered 

 from the fact that Mr. Harting described a bamboo partridge 

 in the Field recently as a cross between a pheasant and 

 partridge. These birds have spurs, but then the author has 

 seen a common partridge with spurs on both legs. The legs 

 were sent to Country Life at the time, and the spurs upon 

 them were sharp like a two-year-old pheasant's. Of the 

 pheasants there are 60 species according to naturalists, 

 divided into 12 genera. Of these, Phasicmus with 21 species 

 is the largest, and the only one which concerns sportsmen 

 in this country. There are 17 of the varieties of the 

 type pheasant, including the new species called after Mr. 

 Hagenbach. There are 1 1 other birds called pheasants 

 which properly belong to the peafowl. These include 



