86 A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 



reeds, which form safe refuges for both wild boars and pheasants, the latter flying to the 

 shore and feeding throughout the day, returning at night to roost among the reeds. In 

 fact, of the pheasants found in the vicinity of these islands, almost all seem to have this 

 habit. It would seem to be a necessary method of escape from the leopards, cheetahs, 

 hyaenas and other dangers which in this almost treeless country would soon bring about 

 the extermination of these birds were they compelled to roost upon the ground with no 

 surrounding barrier of water to protect them. The Persian Pheasant is extremely local 

 in its haunts, and while abundant along the course of one river, may be entirely absent 

 from the adjacent ones, or from a parallel stream flowing through exactly similar 

 territory, with otherwise corresponding fauna and flora. 



SYNONYMY 



Phasianus colchicus, van Poelzam, Proc. Kasan Soc, Nat. I. 1870, p. 140 [nee Linnaeus 1758). 



Phasianus persicus Sewertzow, Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc. XLVIII. 1874, pt. 3 (published in 1875), p. 208 

 (southern shore of Caspian) ; Sewertzow, Jour, fiir Orn. 1875, p. 225 ; Sewertzow, Ibis, 1875, p. 494; Bogdanow, 

 Consp. Av. Russ. I. 1884, p. 19 (Ashourada and Peninsula of Potemkine) ; Seebohm, Ibis, 1887, P- 170; Menzb., 

 Ibis, 1887, p. 302 (Atrak, Sumbar and Chandir Rivers) ; Sharpe, Trans. Linn. Soc. (2) Zool. V. 1889; p. 86 

 (Bauder-i-ghaz) ; Radde and Walt., Ornis, 1889, pp. 89-96, 170, 180 (Transcaspia) ; Zarudny, Bull. Soc. Nat. 

 Mosc, 1889, p. 812; Grant, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. XXII. 1893, p. 324; Dresser, Birds Eur. Suppl. 1895-96, 

 p. 317, col. pi. ; Zarudny, Orn. Faun. Transcasp. 1896, p. 476; Grant, Hand-book Game-birds, Vol, II. 1897, P- 15 ; 

 Dresser, Manual Palae. Birds, 1903, p. 661 ; Buturlin, Ibis, 1904, p. 387 (N.E. Persia and S.W. Transcaspia) ; 

 Buturlin, Ibis, 1908, pp. 585, 587; Witherby, Ibis, 1910, p. 516; Zarudny, Jour, fiir Orn. 59, 191 1, p. 204 

 (Choressen, Persia). 



Phasianus shawi Elliot, Ibis, 1876, p. 132 [nee Elliot, 1870). 



Phasianus komarowi Zd^rudny , Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc. LXI. 1885, pp. 277, 322 (Tchirin-Tchai, Kizzl-kan). 



Phasianus colchicus persicus Rothschild, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, XIV. 1904, p. 37 ; Hartert, Nov. Zool. XXIV. 

 1917, p. 449. 



