8 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PHEASANT 



would naturally imagine that they had existed there 

 since classical times. It is to be regretted that these 

 Corsican pheasants are becoming rare, in consequence 

 of the persecution to which they are subjected. The 

 Italian Consul-General informed Professor Giglioli in 

 1881 that from a hundred and fifty to two hundred 

 birds were killed in the canton of Ghisoni annually. It 

 is impossible to suppose that the pheasant reached Cor- 

 sica in the first instance by a voluntary migration across 

 the sea from Italy ; but that the pheasants of that 

 island are pure- bred examples of Phasianus colchicus 

 may be affirmed without fear of contradiction. Thus 

 the present range of this bird in a truly wild state 

 extends from Corsica eastward into Transcaucasia. 

 Mr. Henry Seebohm contributed to the ' Ibis ' an ex- 

 cellent essay on Phasianus torquatus and its allies, in 

 the course of which he remarks that the Siberian or 

 Ring-necked Pheasant (^Phasianus torquatus") and its 

 allies are only found east of the tiieridian of Calcutta. 

 They differ from the Common Pheasant {Phasianus 

 colchicus^ and its allies, which are only found west of 

 the meridian of Calcutta, in the following particulars : 

 The predominant colour of the rump and upper tail 

 coverts of the ring-necked group of pheasants is green, 

 instead of red, as in the Western birds ; secondly, the 

 rmgnecked birds have the wing coverts lavender-grey 



