﻿PHOTOGRAVURE 
  43 
  

  

  ORIGINAL 
  HOME 
  OF 
  THE 
  ENGLISH 
  PHEASANT, 
  LOWER 
  VALLEY 
  OF 
  THE 
  

   SAFED 
  RUD, 
  BETWEEN 
  THE 
  CASPIAN 
  AND 
  THE 
  BLACK 
  SEAS 
  

  

  Tins 
  particular 
  spot 
  is 
  inhabited 
  by 
  the 
  Talisch 
  Caucasian 
  Pheasant, 
  Phasianus 
  colchicus 
  talischensis 
  

   Lorenz, 
  one 
  of 
  the 
  three 
  closely 
  related 
  forms 
  living 
  in 
  the 
  region 
  between 
  these 
  two 
  great 
  inland 
  seas. 
  

   It 
  was 
  from 
  this 
  area 
  that 
  the 
  Romans 
  brought 
  the 
  first 
  birds 
  to 
  Britain. 
  The 
  land 
  is 
  not 
  fertile 
  and 
  

   is 
  broken 
  up 
  by 
  rivers, 
  small 
  during 
  the 
  seasons 
  of 
  dryness, 
  but 
  swelling 
  into 
  great 
  torrents 
  in 
  the 
  rains. 
  

   The 
  people 
  are 
  little 
  changed 
  from 
  the 
  times 
  of 
  old 
  when 
  the 
  waves 
  of 
  emigrants 
  swept 
  first 
  in 
  one 
  

   direction, 
  then 
  in 
  another, 
  and 
  left 
  this 
  hinterland 
  of 
  Asia, 
  the 
  northernmost 
  edge 
  of 
  Persia, 
  wild 
  and 
  

   semi-civilized. 
  

  

  Here 
  the 
  pheasants 
  still 
  lay 
  their 
  eggs 
  and 
  rear 
  their 
  broods, 
  just 
  as 
  their 
  transported 
  fellows 
  do 
  in 
  

   the 
  coverts 
  of 
  England 
  and 
  America. 
  

  

  