72 A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 



The flight is weaker than in many other pheasants, and slower than the great 

 Reeves. Pheasants feed on a host of vegetable and animal substances, grain and insects 

 forming the two chief staples. They roost by preference on the ground, but occasionally 

 an excess of terrestrial dangers compels them to take to trees. 



The difference in coloration between the sexes is pronounced, the female being 

 adapted for concealment while incubating, although the cock knows well how to hide 

 himself in even a small tuft of grass. Courtship is lateral and persistent, but the birds 

 have short tempers, and rough tactics sometimes supplant continued effort at display. 

 The cocks may fight fiercely, but are not as pugnacious as some other forms. 



The eggs are the sma,llest of all the pheasants, and vary from pear-shape to a rather 

 broad oval, with a smooth and glossy surface, which is quite unmarked. Usually they 

 are olive brown, but they vary from greenish white and pale stone colour to brownish 

 cream or greenish blue. They measure 41 to 47 mm. in length, and 33 to 36 in width. 



The chicks are pale buff, with black lines high over the eye, and two on the crown, 

 filled in with dark seal brown, forming an arrow mark or long triangle, the tip ending 

 at the base of the beak. The nape usually has several irregular markings, and two dark 

 lines which meet on the hind neck, extending thence as a single, broad, blackish-brown 

 band down to the rump. There is a small triangular ear-spot, and a dark line down in 

 front of the wing ; a large seal-brown dorsal wing, or shoulder-spot, and an L-shaped 

 mark back of the wings, paralleling the dorsal mid-band. The tail down is pale 

 chestnut, and the under parts are pale buffy white. The young birds acquire the 

 adult dress before the first winter. 



Next to the domestic fowl, descendants of the red junglefowl, the birds of this genus 

 are of the greatest importance to mankind. They are notable as surpassingly beautiful 

 inmates of aviaries, as affording the best of sport to hunters all over the world, as 

 invaluable agents in preserving the balance of nature in replacing indigenous game-birds, 

 and finally as articles of food, both fresh and conveyed, frozen in cold storage, to the 

 most distant parts of the earth. 



P HAS I AN US 



Type 

 Phasianus, Linnd. Syst. Nat., I. 1766, p. 270 P. colchicus 



The forms of Phasianus which I recognize are as follows : the asterisk indicating those represented by 

 coloured plates. 



Phasianus * colchicus colchicus Linn6. 



colchicus septentrionalis Lorenz. 

 colchicus talischensis Lorenz. 

 colchicus persicus Sewertzow. 



* colchicus principalis Sclater. 

 colchicus zarudnyi Buturlin. 

 colchims zerafshanicus Tarnovski. 

 colchicus bianchii Buturlin. 

 colchicus chrysomelas Sewertzow. 

 colchicus turcestanicus Lorenz. 



* colchicus mongolicus Brandt. 

 colchicus shawi Elliot. 



* colchicus tarimensis Pleske. 

 colchicus satscheuensis Pleske. 

 colchicus vlangalii Przewalski. 



* colchicus strauchi Przewalski. 

 colchicus elegans Elliot. 



* colchicus decollatus Swinhoe. 



