CH A PTH hy x. 
PHEASANTS ADAPTED FOR THE COVERT. 
THE COMMON PHEASANT (PHASIANUS COLCHICUS) AND 
ITS VARIETIES. 
the covert, the common species (Phasianus colchicus) claims the 
first place, as it is more generally distributed and better known 
than any of the more recent introductions. Although not 
equalling some of them in size, or gorgeousness of plumage, it 
is by many sportsmen preferred in consequence of its rapid flight 
and active habits. It is, however, only in the remote districts 
of the country that it is now to be found in a state of purity, 
as the introduction of the Chinese and Japanese species has given 
rise to so many cross bred varieties that in many places a purely bred P. colchicus 
is a rarity. Thus in the district of the Humber we are informed by Mr. John 
Cordeaux that “The pure old breed untainted by any cross is now seldom to be 
met with, excepting in a few localities furthest removed from the great centres of 
game preserving. With these few exceptions, our resident birds are a mixed race, 
exhibiting in a greater or less degree the cross between the old English bird and 
the Ring-neck (P. torquatus).’”’ This statement is equally true of all the well 
preserved districts of England, in many of which the varieties are still more complex 
in consequence of the introduction of the Japanese species (P. versicolor). 
Under these circumstances, I have thought it desirable to quote the description 
of the common pheasant from the first volume of Macgillivray’s “ British Birds,’ 1837, 
inasmuch as the author’s descriptions are admirable for their accuracy and attention 
to detail, and at the date at which it was published, the common species had 
not in Scotland been generally crossed with any of the more recent importations. 
The following is Macgillivray’s description of the two sexes of Phasianus 
colchicus :— 
“ Male.—The legs are stronger; the tarsi, which are stout and a little compressed, 
have about seventeen plates in each of their anterior series. The first toe, which is 
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