GREEN JAPANESE PHEASANT 



Phasianus versicolor Vieillot 



Names. — Specific : versicolor, Latin, many-coloured. English : Green Japanese Pheasant. Vernacular : 

 Kiji (Japanese). 



Type. — Describer: Vieillot. Place of Description : Gal. Ois. 11. 1825, p. 23, pi. 205. 



Brief Description. — Male : Crown, nape, mantle, throat, breast and posterior underparts dark metallic 

 green ; neck all around rich purple ; scapulars coppery red, and with the mantle black-centred and marked with 

 concentric lines of buff; wing-coverts bluish slate changing to greenish on rump and upper tail-coverts; tail 

 greenish grey barred with black and widely fringed with purplish ; facial skin scarlet. Female : In general sandy 

 brown, barred and marked with black ; neck and upper mantle decidedly pinkish, the centre wholly black with 

 a wide tip of metallic green; lores, chin and throat clear sandy buff; patch below eyes white; underparts buff 

 strongly barred with black ; tail pinkish buff, chestnut towards shaft, and barred with black and pale buff. 



Range. — The islands of Japan except Yezo. 



THE BIRD IN ITS WILD HOME 



Wrapped closely in one's blanket on the matting of a tiny Japanese inn, one is 

 awakened by the warm sun's rays shining brightly through the rice-paper walls. It 

 was good to shove these aside and creep out upon the diminutive verandah and there to 

 thaw out the chill of the freezing February night. The water in a near-by pool had 

 a skim of ice, and the field labourers going past were enswathed in all the clothing and 

 kerchiefs they possessed. But by the time breakfast was over and I started upon my 

 quest, with many bows and murmured flatteries to mine host, the air had the life and 

 tang of early spring, which made one glad to be alive. 



I crossed a creek by a long bridge, each span forming a fraction of a circle, and 

 tramped for a half mile over the foot-paths bounding rice-fields, more or less under 

 water. A slope led past long, double rows of bright green, sprouting barley, while here 

 and there patches of clear yellow mustard glowed as if with a light of their own. 



A backward glance showed a view far from wintry, although the frost still crackled 

 in the hollows under Our shoes. The Inland Sea, dotted with emerald islets, glittered 

 beyond the line of fields. A diminutive farm-house to the left was overhung with 

 feathery-fronded palms and a hedge of orange trees — the green foliage dotted with 

 hundreds of full-sized fruit, like the lanterns of a tea-house during festival. 



In the distance a pink -and white mist revealed an orchard of plum trees in full 

 flower, and even at this distance their perfume was strong on the air. Yet a few hours 

 ago I was shivering in a sleety snowstorm straight from the white-enshrouded form of 

 Fuji. 



On and on I went, and at last reached a hillock rising abruptly from the cultivated 

 plain. It was almost barren — the brown dead grass relieved only by a few stunted 

 pines. No dwellings were upon its slopes — the earthquakes making such a situation 



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