RION CAUCASIAN PHEASANT 



Phasianus colchictis colchicus Linnd 



Names. — Subspecific: colchicus, from the region Colchis, now Mingrelia, in Western Transcaucasia. 

 English : Rion Pheasant. 



Type.— Locality : "in Africa, Asia." Describer : Linnaeus. Place of Description : Systema Naturae, 1758, 

 p. 158. Present Location of Type : Unknown. 



Subspecific Characters. — The abdomen is blackish brown or dark chocolate, and a blue or violet gloss is 

 dominant on the black markings of the mantle and breast ; the bird on the whole is of a somewhat darker, more 

 coppery red. 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION 



Transcaucasia, including the basins of the Rion and the Chorokh Rivers and the 

 south-eastern coast of the Black Sea, north to Sukhum-kale, just south of the main east 

 and west chain of the Caucasus Mountains ; the bases of the Kura and lower Araxes and 

 their tributaries up to nearly three thousand feet above sea level. It touches the Caspian 

 Sea at the Kizil-Agatch Gulf. 



SYNONYMY 



Phasianus colchicus Linnaeus, Systema Natura, 1758, p. 158 (Habitat in Africa, Asia); Linnaeus, Systema 

 Natura, 1766, p. 271 ; Grant, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. XXII. 1893, p. 320 (partim, cum subsp. septentrionalis) ; Grant, 

 Hand-book Game-birds, 1897, Vol. II, p. 9 (partim, cum subsp. septentrionalis^ ; Dresser, Manual Palae. Birds, II. 

 1903, p. 658 (partim, ctwi subsp. septentrionalis) ; Buturlin, Ibis, 1904, p. 385 (Western Transcaucasia). 



Phasianus talischensis Grant, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. XXII. 1893, p. 324 (Alazan River; partim, ctim P, 

 talischensis) ; Dresser, Manual Palae. Birds, II. 1903, p. 660 (partim). 



Phasianus colchicus lorenzi Buturlin, Ibis, 1904, p. 386 (Central and Eastern Transcaucasia) ; Buturlin, Ibis, 

 1908, pp. 584, 586; Zarudny, Journ. fiir Orn. 59, 1911, p. 204 (N.W. Persia). 



Phasianus colchicus colchicus Rothschild, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, XIV. 1904, p.37 ; Jourdain, Ibis. (9), VI. 1912, 

 p. 327 ; Hartert, Nov. Zool. XXIV. 1917, p. 449. 



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