﻿PHEASANT. 



7*3 



the appearance of being bifid at the end : each feather on the 

 fhoulders and wing coverts has more or lefs of a buff-coloured 

 curved mark in the middle, bounded with a black line both 

 within and without : the lower part of the back the fame, but lefs 

 diftincl : rump plain glofiy reddifh brown, gloffed with green : 

 wing coverts brown, variegated with yellowifli white : quills 

 brown, fpotted on both webs with yellowifli white : belly and 

 vent dufky : the tail confifts of eighteen feathers, the longeft of 

 which are twenty inches, the fhorteft lefs than five, hence very 

 cuneiform -, all of them have tranfverfe bars of black on each fide 

 of the fhaft, about twenty-four in number on the two middle 

 feathers, the others in proportion : the legs are dufky j furniflied 

 with a ftrong membrane between the toes, and a blunt fpur 

 three quarters of an inch above the hind toe. 



The female is lefs in fize : the general colour brown, variegated Female^ 



with grey, rufous, and blackifh : tail much fhorter, but barred 

 like the male -, and the region of the eyes covered with fea- 

 thers. 



This bird is at prefent found in a ftate of nature in almoft the Place an& 

 whole of the old continent -, the original place fuppofed to be the 

 environs of the ancient Colchis, and from thence tranfported, by- 

 degrees, into the other parts of the world. Not found at all in 

 any part of America *. The wings being fhort, they are not 

 made for long flights ; therefore it is mofb likely that they have 

 been purpofely fent to every place in which we now find them, 



• Anfon talks of Pheafants which he met with at the ifland of St. Catherine, 

 on the coaft of Brafil, (See Voy. p. 62.) ; and again at Chequetan, thirty leagues 

 weft of Acafuko in the province of Mexico. (Voy. p. 364.) Thefe cannot be 

 true Pheafants. 



Vol. II. 4 Y rather 



Manners. 



