COMMON PHEASANT. 311 



Phasianus ColcJiicus, Common Pheasant, SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. i. p. 417. 



JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 166. 



GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xxi. 



Faisan vulgaire, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 453. 



PHASIANUS. Generic Characters. Bill of moderate length, strong; upper 

 mandible convex, naked at the base, and with the tip bent downwards. Nostrils 

 basal, lateral, covered with a cartilaginous scale ; cheeks, and the skin surround- 

 ing the eyes, destitute of feathers, and with a verrucose red covcering. Wings 

 short: the first quill- feather narrow towards the tip ; the fourth and fifth feathers 

 the longest in the wing. Tail long, wedge-shaped, graduated, containing eighteen 

 feathers. Feet three toes in front, one behind ; the three anterior toes united 

 by a membrane as far as the first joint ; the hind toe articulated upon the tarsus, 

 which in the male birds is furnished with a horny, conical, and sharp spur. 



DANIELS, in his Rural Sports, says, Pheasants were 

 brought into Europe by the Argonauts 1 250 years before 

 the Christian sera, and are at present found in a state of 

 nature in nearly the whole of the Old Continent. It may 

 surprise the sportsman to read that this bird, which he 

 finds wild in forests which can scarcely be said to have an 

 owner, was brought from the banks of the Phasis, a river 

 in Colchis in Asia Minor, and artificially propagated with 

 us, and in other parts of the globe. History assigns to 

 Jason the honour of having brought this bird, on his cele- 

 brated expedition, from the banks of the Phasis, and hence 

 the modifications of the word, viz. Phasianus in Latin, 

 Pheasant in our own language, Faisan in French, and 

 Fasiano in Italian. The ancient Colchis, from which the 

 specific name is derived, is the Mingrelia of the present 

 day ; and there, it is said, this splendid bird is still to be 

 found wild, and unequalled in beauty. The price Phea- 

 sants bore, according to Echard's History of England, AJD. 

 1299, being the 27th of the reign of Edward the First, 

 was fourpence : at the same period the value of a Mallard 

 was three halfpence, a Plover one penny, and a couple of 

 Woodcocks three halfpence. 



Extensively diffused in England as far north as over the 



