CHAPTER X. 

 The Common Pheasant 



(Phasianus colchicus). 



THE pheasants which are best adapted to the coverts 

 in England, the United States of America, Austraha, and 

 other temperate climates are undoubtedly those which 

 belong to the restricted genus Phasianus ^ ox, as many term them, 

 the true pheasants. Formerly there was but one distinct species 

 or race known in Europe, that which is named the P. colchicus, 

 from its having being received from the banks of the River 

 Colchis in Asia Minor. This was followed by the ring-necked 

 P. torquatus from China, the P. versicolor from Japan, and 

 the Mongolian pheasant, P- mongolicus. Of late years, 

 particularly in the decade of extensive rearing which preceded 

 the European War, the Mongohan pheasant has been freely 

 crossed with our common pheasant and with the Chinese, 

 and has quite supplanted the versicolor, which for various 

 reasons discussed in another chapter has fallen a little into 

 disfavour. These four pheasants were originally regarded 

 by naturalists as perfectly distinct species, but it is now known 

 that they breed freely with one another, and that the offspring 

 are perfectly fertile, however intimately they are interbred. 

 The late Henry Seebohm, who paid great attention to the birds 

 of this group, writing in the Ibis for 1887, said : 



" The fact that all true pheasants interbreed freely with 

 each other and produce fertile offspring, may be accepted as 

 absolute proof that they are only sub-specifically distinct 

 from each other. Like all other sub-species, they only exist 

 upon sufferance. The local races appear to be distinct enough, 

 but they only retain their distinctive character as long as they 



