VARIETIES AND SPECIES OF THE PHEASANT 271 



Truly sportsmen cannot read Mr. Millais' account without envy. 

 But, besides the speed, the way this bird can stop itself is a 

 revelation. It does this apparently by offering the full surface 

 of its tail, its body, and its wings simultaneously to air resistance ; 

 and if Mr. Millais is correct as to its speed and the power it 

 has of stopping within a few feet, it is a wonder that it does not 

 break its feathei shafts as well as itself by the sudden pressure. 



Of the 17 type birds it may be said that a true line of colour 

 distinction cannot be drawn, and that their markings run one 

 into the other as they are found East or West and North and 

 South. It is well to regard these two tendencies as different 

 geographic variations, and because the birds seem to have 

 latitude variations in common whatever their longitude may 

 be, and longitudinal variations in common whatever their 

 latitude may be, to hold them all one species with local colour 

 variations and nothing more. In the West the pheasant tends 

 to redness, in the East to greenness, both of back and breast. 

 The extremes are observed in the old English pheasant and the 

 versicolor of Japan. This gradation of colour from East to 

 West is not altered by latitude. But of whatever shade and 

 longitude the birds may be, if they are found in the North they 

 have a large quantity of white upon them, and if in the South 

 they have no white. It is therefore possible to settle the 

 natural home of the pheasant almost accurately by his color- 

 ation. The old English pheasant is a native of most of Europe 

 in our time ; but the Romans obtained it from Asia Minor, and 

 it is named by ornithologists in consequence Phasianus colchicus. 

 In England there are now not any of this breed ; ours are 

 all mongrels. 



The Persian (Ph. persicus] is a near relation to colchicus, but 

 has very nearly white wing coverts, narrower bars on the tail, 

 and is dark-red on the sides of the belly. It inhabits West 

 Persia and Transcaspia, and Mr. Rothschild thinks it a good 

 variety for introduction, as it is hardy and flies fast and high. 



A near relation is the Afghan pheasant (Ph. principalis], or 

 Prince of Wales pheasant. It only differs from the last-named 

 variety in its whiter wings, its maroon patch under the throat, 



