CAUCASIAN PHEASANT 



Phasian^ts colchicus 



This pheasant has been separated into three more or less distinct subspecific forms, 

 septentrionalis, colchicus and talischensis. All of these inhabit the Caucasian region 

 between the Black and Caspian Seas, extending into Russia on the north as far as 

 Astrakhan, and into northern Persia on the south. One or more of these were the 

 original components of the so-called common or English pheasant, and when in one of 

 these hybrids an excess of colchicus blood has restricted or entirely supplanted the white 

 torquatus collar, and the bird in general resembles the present form, it is usually called 

 the Black-necked Pheasant. 



Names. — Generic : Phasianus, Greek, (j)aaiav6<;, a pheasant, the Phasian bird, from Phasis, ^dai<iy a river in 

 Colchis, near the mouth of which these birds are said to have been numerous. Specific : colchicus, from the region 

 Colchis, now Mingrelia, in western Trans-Caucasia. English: Caucasian or Black-necked Pheasant. French: 

 Faisan de Colchide. German : Jagdfasan. 



Brief Description.— Male : Centre of the crown bronze green ; rest of the head dark green ; neck 

 purple ; mantle, breast and flanks coppery orange, margined narrowly on the upper plumage and more broadly 

 on the lower with black, glossed with purple, green blue or violet ; upper back and scapulars basally with con- 

 centric lines of black and buff, widely fringed with purplish lake ; lower back, rump and upper tail-coverts red 

 maroon, glossed with purplish lake ; wing-coverts sandy brown ; mid-breast and sides of abdomen dark purplish 

 green; mid-abdomen dark brown mixed with rufous; tail-feathers olive down the centre, with narrow, wide-set 

 black bars, and widely fringed on each margin with rufous, glossed with purplish lake. Female : General colour 

 sandy brown barred with black ; back and sides of neck pinkish with metallic purple or green margins ; mantle, 

 sides of breast and flanks chestnut with black centres and pinkish-grey margins ; an elongate patch of white, 

 black-tipped feathers below the eyes ; tail reddish brown down the middle, shading laterally into sandy olive, with 

 wide irregular bars of black and buff. 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION 



Considering for a moment the Caucasian forms of colchicus as a single group. 

 Dr. Radde has presented us with the most exact information. In the entire Caucasus 

 it is only rarely that these pheasants are found at an altitude higher than twenty-five 

 hundred feet. A number of exceptions have been noted, especially in regard to the 

 breeding haunts, as it is the rule for these birds to leave the steppes in the spring and 

 to ascend the mountains during the warm season of the year. The general rule regard- 

 ing elevation is confirmed by the fact that the western limit of distribution, on the plains 

 of Suram, is at a mean elevation of twenty-two hundred feet. Above the ravine of 

 Borshon at Azkur and Achalzick, pheasants have never been seen. The neighbourhood 

 of Nuchas and Schemacha, the plains bounded by the Alasan and the Kura, and many 

 other places at corresponding elevations, mark the upper limits of distribution of this 

 bird. In the lowlands of Lienkora the range of the pheasants is decided rather by the 



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