THE PHEASANT IN HISTORY 



between forty and fifty specimens as existing in the 

 National Collection, obtained in many localities, from 

 Bohemia and the Gulf of Salonica to the Caucasus.' 



It is to be regretted that our National Collection 

 seems to possess no pheasants from the island of 

 Corsica. I think we may say that Professor Giglioli 

 almost re-discovered the pheasant in Corsica. He, 

 at any rate, was the first to inform me that wild phea- 

 sants existed on that island ; in proof of which he 

 produced a fine male and female which he had 

 received from Corsica. Now, how the pheasant first 

 reached Corsica is a very curious problem. It is 

 conceivable that the original stock may have been 

 introduced by some Roman ofiScer in the days of the 

 Empire. Professor Giglioli considers that the phea- 

 sant is as much indigenous to Europe as to the swamps 

 of the Caucasus ; apropos of which, he tells us that it 

 is at the present time to be found in abundance upon 

 the frontier of Dalmatia. It also frequents the woods 

 which fringe the mouth of the river Drino in Albania, 

 to which it certainly cannot have been introduced by 

 any hirnian agency.- 



There is documentary evidence that pheasants 

 have been found in Corsica since 1531 ; indeed, one 



' Catalogue of Birds, vol. xxii. p. 322. 

 ^ Avifauna Italica, vol. i. p. 336. 



