CHAPTER X. 



PHEASANTS ADAPTED FOR THE COVERT. 



THE COMMON PHEASANT {FRASIANT7S COLGEICUS) AND 



ITS VAEIETIES. 



' N commencing tlie description of the diflCerent pheasants adapted to 

 the covert, the common species {JPhasicmus colchicus) claims the 

 first place, as it is more generally distributed and better known 

 than any of the more recent introductions. Although not 

 equalling some of them in size, or gorgeousness of plumage, it 

 is by many sportsmen preferred in consequence of its rapid flight 

 and active habits. It is, however, only in the remote districts 

 of the country that it is now to be found in a state of purity, 

 as the introduction of the Chinese and Japanese species has given 

 rise to so many cross bred varieties that in many places a purely bred P. colchicus 

 is a rarity. Thus in the district of the Humber we are informed by Mr. John 

 Cordeaux that " The pure old breed untainted by any cross is now seldom to be 

 met with, excepting in a few locaKties furthest removed from the great centres of 

 game preserving. With these few exceptions, our resident birds are a mixed race, 

 exhibiting in a greater or less degree the cross between the old English bird and 

 the B/ing-neck (P. torquatus)." This statement is equally true of all the well 

 preserved districts of England, in many of which the varieties are still more complex 

 in consequence of the introduction of the Japanese species (P. versicolor). 



Under these circumstances, I have thought it desirable to quote the description 

 of the common pheasant from the first volume of MacgiUivray's "British Birds," 1837, 

 inasmuch as the author's descriptions are admirable for their accuracy and attention 

 to detail, and at the date at which it was published, the common species had 

 not in Scotland been generally crossed with any of the more recent importations.* 



The following is MacgiUivray's description of the two sexes of PJiasianus 

 colchicus : — 



" Male. — The legs are stronger; the tarsi, which are stout and a little compressed, 

 have about seventeen plates in each of their anterior series. The first toe, which is 



N 



