The Common Pheasant.- 



-BIKDS.- 



-The Golden Pheasant. 



397 



in the ancient kingdom of Colchis, on the eastern shore 

 of the Black sea, and the bird is still abundant in a 

 wild state in the Caucasian provinces. Its scientific 

 names {Phasiarnis colchkus) are derived from those 

 of the river and kingdom above mentioned. 



The general appearance of the Pheasant is too 

 well known to need any description. The haunts of 

 the Pheasants are woods and thickets, but they never 

 thrive except in the vicinity of water, and are even 

 fond of taking up their abode amongst the rushes and 

 osiers of marshy places. They are terrestrial in their 

 habits, walking and running along the ground in the 

 same way as the common fowl, although with more 

 grace and swiftness. Their flight is heavy and whir- 

 ring, and they rarely take wing unless menaced with 

 immediate danger. During the summer they even 

 roost on the ground, but pass the long nights of 

 autumn and winter upon the branches of trees. The 

 cry of the cock Pheasant is a peculiar short crow. 



The food of these birds consists of various kinds of 

 seeds, varied with wild fruits, green herbage, and 

 insects. Ants, and their larvae and pnpfe, are favourite 

 articles of diet with them. They may be seen eating 

 blackberries, sloes, and haws, and their crops are 

 sometimes found to be filled with acorns. 



Like our common poultry, and, indeed, like all the 

 other species of this family, the Pheasant is poly- 

 gamous, and the males and females associate only 

 during the breeding season. The females deposit 

 their eggs, which vary from ten to fourteen in number, 

 in a small hollow lined with dead leaves, and scratched 

 in the ground amongst long grass, or in the midst of 

 bushes ; but so careless are they in many cases, that 

 they have been known to drop their eggs in the nest 

 of the partridge. When engaged in the work of 

 incubation, however, the hen Pheasant sits very 

 closely, and, trusting to the concealment afforded by 

 the similarity of her brown colour to that of the ground, 

 she will scarcely rise from her nest until nearly under 



the feet of an intruder. They lay freely in confine- 

 ment, and the possessors of preserves usually keep a 

 good many old birds in pens in order to maintain their 

 stock. The eggs are hatched by common hens, and 

 the young brought up with great care. The Pheasant 

 is also distinguished by the facility with which it may 

 be got to breed with other gallinaceous birds. In 

 captivity it has bred with the common fowl and the 

 guinea fowl, and wild hybrids between this bird and 

 the black cock have been met with. 



The common Pheasant is liable to considerable 

 variation in its plumage. Some specimens are met 

 with quite white, others exhibit white patches, but the 

 most common variation consists in the presence of 

 white feathers scattered amongst the rest of the 

 plumage. The Bing-necked Pheasant, which has 

 been supposed to be a hybrid between the common 

 Pheasant and the Chinese Ringed Pheasant (P. tor- 

 qiiatus), is regarded by Mr. Yarrell as a mere variety, 

 as is also the kind known as the Bohemian Pheasant. 

 The curious circumstance of hen Pheasants acquiring 

 a plumage more or less resembling that of the cock 

 bird, which was at one time supposed to be an effect of 

 age, has been shown by Mr. Yarrell to be connected 

 with the obliteration of the ovaries from some unknown 

 cause, and to occur both in young and old birds. 



LADY AMHERST'S PHEASANT (Phasiamts Amher- 

 stifr) — Plate 19, fig. 70 — one of the most elegant birds 

 of this family, is an inhabitant of continental India. The 

 top of the head is of a green colour, but is adorned with 

 a crest of slender crimson feathers ; and from the sides 

 and back of the head descends a beautiful white 

 tippet, each feather of which is terminated by a green 

 band; the tail measures upwards of three feet in length, 

 and is of a grayish-white colour, with numerous broad 

 green bars on each feather. 



THE GOLDEN PHEASANT {Phas{a7ins pictiis)—fis. 

 123 — resembles the preceding species in the possession 

 of a crest and tippet, but is far more splendid, or rather 



Fig. 123. 



iM^y/f,/' '^ />-( '^^'> 



The Golden Pheasant (Phasianus pictus). 



gaudy, in its colouring. Its crest feathers are yellow, 

 and those of the tippet golden-yellow, barred with 

 black at the apex. The back is metallic gi-een, the 

 rump and tail-coverts yellow, the wings blackish, 

 with the secondaries blue, and the whole lower sur- 



face bright red ; a portion of the tail-coverts project 

 in long hackle-like plumes of a red colour, and the 

 elongated tail-feathers are mottled with brown and 

 black. This magnificent bird is a native of China, 

 where it is kept in a state of domestication. It has 



