162 PHEASAXT,S FOR COVERTS AND AVI ARIES. 



Iq the district of the Humber we were informed liy the 

 late Mr. John Cordeaux that "the pure ohl l)reed untainted 

 by any cross is now seldom to be met with, excepting in a few 

 localities furthest removed from the great centres of game 

 preserving. With these few exceptions, oui' resident Ijirds 

 are a mixed race, exhibiting in a greater or less degree the 

 cross between the old Englisli bird and the Ring-neck 

 (P. torijuiifuN)." This statement is e(|ually true of all the 

 w(^ll-presei-ved districts of England, in many of which the 

 varieties are still more complex in consequence of the intro- 

 duction of the Japanese species (P versicoJur), and more 

 recentlv of the iMongolian (P. iiKnigdliciis) . 



In these circumstances, 1 have thought it desirable to 

 quote the descrijition of the common pheasant from the fii'st 

 volume of Macgillivray's "British Birds," 18o7, inasmuch as 

 that autlior's descrq)tions are unrivalled for tlieii- accuracy and 

 atreution to detail, and at the date at which it was ])ubli:^lieil 

 the common species liad not iu Scotland been crossed with 

 iiny of the more recent importations. 



Macgillivray thus describes the sexes of P- colchicits : — 



•" ilale. — Tlie legs are stronger ; the tarsi, which are stout 

 and a little conijjressed, have about seventeen plates in eacli 

 of their anterior series. The first toe, which is very small, 

 has five, the second twelve, the tliird twenty-two, the fourth 

 nineteen scutelha. The spur on the back of the tarsus i^ 

 conical, blunt, and about a quarter of an inch loni:'. 



" The feathers of the upper part of the head are oblontf 

 and blended, of the rest of the head and the upper part of 

 the neck imbricated and rounded, of the fore-neck and breast 

 Ijroad, sliglitly emarginate or abruptly rounded; of the back 

 broad and rounded, of the rump elongated, with loose 

 filaments; of the sides wry long, of the abdomen downy, 

 of the legs soft and rather short. Directly over the aperture 

 of the eaT is a, small erectile tuft of leathers. Tlie wini>-s 

 are short, very broad, (airveil, rounded, of twenty-lour i|uills ; 

 the primaries atteniuit('(l from near the base, rounded, the 



