898 TfiE ZOOLOGIST. 



on the subjects which they have undertaken to deal with, but also 

 on account of the excellent illustrations by Mr. A. Thorburn, 

 which are so true to nature that they might well be mistaken for 

 instantaneous photographs, instead of reproductions as they are 

 of sketches in black and white. 



Writing of the distribution of the Pheasant in Europe, Mr. 

 Macpherson very properly points out (p. 6) the mistake which 

 many writers have made in supposing that Phasianus colchicus, 

 except where introduced by man's agency, is confined to the 

 forests and marshes which fringe the shallow and slimy waters of 

 the slow-flowing river Phasis. It exists in many parts of the 

 Caucasus, extending eastward into Transcaucasia, and in a 

 northerly direction to the Volga. In the twenty-second volume 

 of the * Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum ' (p. 322), 

 Mr. Ogilvie Grant has defined the range of this bird as 

 embracing Southern Turkey, Greece, and the north of Asia 

 Minor, as well as in the Caucasus ; so that although it may be 

 true enough that the Romans first became acquainted with it 

 through specimens imported from Colchis, from what we now 

 know of its geographical distribution, there is no reason why 

 they might not have procured it from countries much nearer to 

 Italy, had more particular search been made for it. Professor 

 Giglioli considers that the Pheasant is as much indigenous to 

 Europe as to the swamps of the Caucasus; apropos of which he 

 states Avifauna Italica,' vol. i. p. 336) that it is to be found 

 abundantly upon the frontier of Dalmatia, and also frequents the 

 woods at the mouth of the river Drino in Albania, to which it 

 certainly cannot have been introduced by human agency. 



Referring to the introduction of the Pheasant into Ireland, 

 Mr. Macpherson quotes Thompson to the effect that it must have 

 been introduced into that country prior to the year 1589, when 

 Robert Payne wrote that there was " great store " of these birds 

 there. He might have added that Giraldus Cambrensis found 

 no Pheasants nor Partridges in Ireland in 1183-80, nor were any 

 noticed there nearly two centuries later, in 1303, by Ranulf 

 Higden (c/. Zool. 1881, pp. 437-439). 



As to the introduction of this bird into St. Helena, alluded to 

 by Mr. Macpherson (p. 20), some fuller details than he has given 

 may be found in an article on this subject published in ' The 

 Zoologist' for 1880, p. 225. 



