VOL. XV.] NOTES. 67 



not land. At 8 o'clock both birds came past, but did not 

 stay, and at 8.30 one blue and white bird flew out from the 

 cliff just below me. We tried to find the bird and nest from 

 a boat, but could see nothing. It is a very steep cliff, over- 

 hanging at the top in one place and loose shale in the other. 

 Although in the Report for 1919 above quoted it is stated 

 that the birds nested this has not, so far as I know, been 

 actually proved. Mary G. S. Best. 



A SIXTEENTH CENTURY PORTRAIT OF THE 

 PHEASANT. 



At the Franco-British Exhibition of Textiles, held in the 

 early spring of 192 1, in the Victoria and Albert Museum 

 (London), there were exhibited three of the series of tapestries 

 (Nos. 217-219), of the Life of the Virgin, belonging to Rheims 

 Cathedral. Records of their place of origin cannot be traced, 

 but they may be ascribed with confidence to the Flemish 

 district bordering the territories of North France and it is 

 certain that, although begun some ten years after the opening 

 of the sixteenth century, they were not finished for more 

 than twenty j^ears after that date. In the foreground to 

 right of one of these tapestries (No. 217, " The Virgin in the 

 Temple : her perfections ") a cock Pheasant is portrayed 

 and, at first glance, this piece of work is of unusual interest 

 to students of birds, since it appears to represent the Ring- 

 necked variety Phasianus torquatus. 



The history of the introduction of the Pheasant to 

 western Europe has often provided a theme for the writings 

 of ornithologists. It is generally agreed that the original 

 bird was the Black-necked Pheasant {Phasianus colchicus) 

 and it seems probable that this species was introduced to 

 England during the occupation of the Romans, 52 B.C. to 

 A.D. 410. The Ring-necked Pheasant (P. torquatus) is, 

 however, not believed to have been brought, from south 

 China, to this country until the end of the eighteenth century. 

 That the Black-necked Pheasant (or "old Enghsh Pheasant" 

 as it used to be called) was subsequently displaced by his 

 eastern cousin (P. torquatus) has often been a cause of 

 complaint and is common knowledge. 



It is therefore of much interest to find the picture of 

 what is apparently intended to be P. torquatus in a Flemish 

 tapestry which dates back to circa 1520. It is, of course, 

 possible that this portrait of a Pheasant may have been 

 copied from some oriental miniature, or picture, in which 

 case it would lose all its ornithological interest as indicating 



