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ORDER V. GALLINACEOUS. 



The birds of this order have heavy bodies, and fhort wings : flxong, arched, fhort bills ; 

 the upper mandible fhutting over the edges of the lower : ftrong legs ; toes joined at the 

 bafe, as far as the firft joint, by a ftrong membrane ; claws broad, formed for fcratching up 

 the ground : and twelve feathers or more in the tail. They are granivorous, feminivo- 

 rous, infedtivorous ; fwift runners, and of fhort flight ; often polygamous, very prolific, 

 and lay their eggs on the bare ground, or on a flight bed of leaves or mofs; fonorous, que- 

 rulous, and pugnacious. Their flefh is delicate food. This order appears to connect the 

 two divifions of land-fowl and water-fowl. 



GENUS I. PHEASANT. 

 Bill, convex, fhort, and ftrong. 

 Nostrils, fmall. 

 Tail, very long, cuneiform, bending downwards. 



SPECIES I. PHEASANT. 

 PI. 132. 



Phafianus colchicus. Lin. Syji. I. p. 37 r - 

 Le Faifan. Brif. Orn. I. p. 26a. 



The pheafant is about the fize of a common fowl, weighing from forty-four ounces to 

 fifty, and is fometimes three feet in length including the tail. The bill is of a pale horn 

 colour : the eyes yellow : the fides of the head, which are bare of feathers, deep crimfon, 

 dotted with minute fpecks of black : the head, and half the neck, blue and violet, change- 

 able with a green gold glofs : the feathers of the reft of the neck, the breaft, and the fides, 

 reddifh chefnut, fringed with black : wings brown ; fome of the fcapulars and coverts 

 marked with buff colour in the middle : rump reddifh brown, with a fhade of greenifh 

 blue : belly and vent dulky : the tail very pointed, confifting of eighteen feathers, the 

 longeft twenty inches or upwards, the fhorteft only five, in colour brown, crofs-barred 

 with black : legs dufky. 



The female is fmaller than the male, of a brown colour mottled with grey, ruddy, and 

 black : the tail fhorter, but nearly the fame in colour as that of the male. She lays from 

 twelve to fifteen eggs on the bare ground : for a reprefentation of them, fee PI. XXX. 

 Fig. 1. 



A variety of this bird is now becoming common in England, which differs from ours 

 in having a ring of filvery white almoft furrounding the neck, and the colours fomewhat 

 more brilliant. 



