PHEASANTS 



FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. 



CHAPTEE I. 



NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PHEASANTS. 



STEUCTUEE, FOOD, AND HABITS. 



HE PHEASANTS, properly so called (as dis- 

 ||, tinguished from the allied but perfectly distinct 

 genera which include the Grold and Silver pheasants, 

 the Kaleege, the Monaul, &c.), constitute the genus or 

 group known to naturalists under the title Phasianus. 

 Of the true pheasants no less than thirteen distinct 

 species have been described by Mr. D. G. Elliott, in hia 

 splendid folio monograph on the Phasianidce. Of thesi. 

 several are known only by rare specimens of their skins 

 brought from little explored Asiatic countries, and others 

 cannot be regarded as anything more than mere local or 

 geographical varieties of well known species. Since the 

 publication of Elliott^s Phasianidce several additional species 

 have been described. 



Mr. Ogilvie-Grant in his valuable "Handbook on Game 

 Birds" published in Allen's "Natural History" enumerates 

 no less than eighteen species of true pheasants belonging to 

 the genus Phasianus, of which he takes the common species, 

 Phasianus colchicas, as the type, and additional species have 



B 



