6 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PHEASANT 



cross between the pheasant of the Caucasus and the 

 Siberian or Ring-necked Pheasant of China. The 

 latter bird is extremely handsome, but quite unknown 

 to the majority of Englishmen ; for we should make a 

 great mistake if we regarded the ring- necked pheasants 

 seen in this country as typical Chinese pheasants. 

 This point will be more easily understood if we try 

 to follow a short statement of the distribution of the 

 pheasant and its allies. I have noticed that even 

 ornithologists sometimes talk about the pheasant to 

 which we usually apply that term, I mean Phasianus 

 cokhicus, as though it were confined to the forests and 

 marshes which fringe the shallow and slimy waters of 

 the slow-ilowing Phasis or Rion. My friend Mr. AV. 

 H. Stuart, of Batoum, who has taken a great deal of 

 trouble to procure the most recent information about 

 the pheasants of the Black Sea, informs me that this 

 species exists in many parts of the Caucasus. It fre- 

 quents low-lying locaHties, notably those in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the rivers Rion and Hura ; but it is 

 generally to be found in suitable spots. Its eastern 

 range extends into Transcaucasia, while it reaches 

 the Volga in a northerly direction. Mr. Ogilvie Grant 

 defines the range of this wild pheasant as embracing 

 Southern Turkey, Greece and the North of Asia 

 Minor, as well as the Caucasus. He catalogues 



