GAME BIRDS OF INDIA AND ASIA. J 



The smallest members of this family have the 

 widest distribution, partridges and quails being 

 found almost everywhere, the latter being espe- 

 cially widely spread. The pheasants, except where 

 artificially introduced, do not occur outside of the 

 continent of Asia as a rule, one species only, the 

 common or Colchian pheasant, occurring in Europe. 

 The peafowl and jungle-fowl are confined to the 

 warm regions of South-Eastern Asia. Africa is 

 held by the guinea-fowls, and North and Central 

 America by the turkeys. 



The boundaries between the different species 

 and genera are settled by the right of the strongest ; 

 at any rate, in England it has been found impos- 

 hible to have guinea-fowls, or golden or silver phea- 

 sants, wild along with common pheasants, since 

 the last are not able to hold their own with these 

 birds. When two closely- a.llied species of Fha- 

 sianidoe meet, they. interbreed and fuse, and what 

 with this hybiidism, and the tendency of some 

 species to throw off sports, or "aberrations," as 

 students of butterflies would call them, the family 

 is a remarkably interesting one, as it undoubtedly 

 shows better than any other some cf the methods of 

 evolution still actively in progress. . 



