1 8 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PHEASANT 



This engraving was published in 1808, by which time 

 the Siberian, or ring-necked bird, was well known in 

 England. Its introduction into Scotland was pro- 

 bably accomplished many years later. Macgillivray 

 exhibited a curious incredulity as to the origin of the 

 ring-necked bird, which he preferred to consider an 

 accidental variety of the Common Pheasant. But we 

 must not judge him too harshly, for it was only in the 

 fifties at the earliest that ring-necked pheasants be- 

 came common in Scotland. Zoology has few more 

 curious surprises than the blending which Nature has 

 effected between the Common and Siberian Pheasants. 

 No one who compared the adult males of these two 

 species would imagine that their characters could 

 ever be absorbed into a fertile race of hybrids ; for 

 the colours of the pure-bred birds are extremely 

 unlike. I refer to typical specimens, of which the 

 majority of sportsmen can hardly, perhaps, judge ; 

 for, as Mr. Ogilvie-Grant remarks : ' It is very 

 rarely now that anything approaching a pure-bred 

 male of P. colchicus can be found in England : even 

 in specimens which appear to be pure-bred at the first 

 glance (that is, in those which have no trace of a white 

 ring), the subterminal green bar of P. iorquatus is 

 usually more or less developed on the feathers of the 

 lower back, and the basal part of the central tail 



