PHEASANTS. 425 
end of the winter, they seldom congregate much together.” Unlike the great 
majority of their kind, these birds do not separate after the business of incubation 
is over, and probably pair for life, since at whatever season one is found, its mate is 
sure to be met with somewhere near. Their flight is extremely rapid, more so 
than that of any other Himalayan pheasant, and when they dart down the side of 
the mountains it requires an experienced shot to stop them. The nest is placed at 
the root of a tzee, or under some overhanging tuft of grass, and contains from five 
to nine eggs, resembling those of the monal in colour. 
Before mentioning the true pheasants, it may be observed that 
the well-known chir-pheasant (Catreus wallichi), from the middle 
ranges of the Himalaya, alone represents an allied genus. Resembling in general 
form and the shape of the tail the true pheasants, it lacks the bright metallic 
plumage of those birds, while the wing is of the monal type, with the first primary 
shorter than the tenth; the head being adorned with a full large crest, most 
developed in the males. Inhabitants of low-lying wooded valleys, and including 
about a couple of dozen of gorgeously-coloured species and varieties, the true 
pheasants range from South-Eastern Europe across Central Asia to Japan and 
Formosa. As already pointed out, the wing in all these birds is partridge-like, and 
differs from the characteristic monal type, the first flight-feather being much longer 
than the tenth; but, unlike the partridges, the tail is long and wedge-shaped— 
much longer than the wing. The sides of the head are naked, and there is no 
crest; but the ear-tufts are considerably lengthened in the male, and the legs are 
armed with a pair of sharp spurs. The home of the common pheasant (Phasianus 
colchicus) is South-Eastern Europe and Asia Minor, although the bird has for many 
centuries been established in Great Britain and various parts of the Continent to 
the west of its original habitat. The male has the top of the head bronze-green, 
and the rest of the head and neck dark green, shading into purple on the sides and 
front of the latter; the mantle, chest, breast, and flanks are fiery orange-red with 
a purplish green margin to each feather; the middle of the back and scapulars 
mottled and beautifully patterned with buff, black, and orange-red ; the lower back 
and tail-coverts red, glossed with purplish lake ; and the wing-coverts sandy brown. 
The middle of the breast and sides of the under-parts are glossed with dark purplish 
green, the rest of the under-parts being brown mixed with rufous; the tail-feathers 
are light olive-green, the middle pair being barred along the middle with black ; 
the naked skin on the sides of the face is scarlet-vermilion ; and the legs and feet 
are brownish horn colour. The female is mostly sandy brown, marked and barred 
with black and buff, shading into chestnut on the mantle and sides of the breast. 
The majority of the species allied to the common pheasant may be divided 
into two groups, namely, those inhabiting that part of Central Asia west of the 
meridian of Calcutta, which have the rump and upper tail-coverts maroon or rufous, 
sometimes glossed with green; while in all the forms found to the eastward of that 
line these parts are greenish or bluish slate-colour. In the most westerly forms of 
the first group, such as the common pheasant and the nearly-allied Persian pheasant 
(P. persicus), which differs in having the wing-coverts white, and inhabits the 
valleys to the south-east of the Caspian, there is no white ring on the neck, but 
as we go eastwards we find other species, such as Severtzow’s pheasant (P. 
True Pheasants. 
