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P H A 
si amis is derived from the. river Phasis, the 
banks of which are the native habitation of 
the pheasant. The species are : 
1. The gallus, or common cock and hen, 
with a compressed caruncle, or fleshy comb 
on the top of the head, and two caruncles or 
wattles under the chin. The ears are naked, 
and the tail is compressed and erected. Of 
all birds, perhaps this species affords the 
greatest number of varieties, there being 
scarcely two to be found that exactly resem- 
ble each other in plumage and form. The 
tail, which makes such a beautiful figure in 
the generality of these birds, is yet found en- 
tirely wanting in others ; and 'not only the 
tail, but the rump also. The toes, which are 
usually four in all animals of the poultry kind, 
yet in a variety of the cock are found to 
amount to live. The feathers, which lie so 
sleek and in such beautiful order in most of 
those we are acquainted with, are in a peculiar 
breed all inverted, and stand staring the 
wrong way. Nay, there is a species that 
comes trom Japan, which, instead of feathers, 
seems to be covered over with hair. 
It is not well ascertained when the cock 
was first made domestic in Europe ; but it is 
generally agreed that we first had him in our 
western world from the kingdom of Persia. 
In his wild condition, his plumage is black 
and yellow, and his comb and wattles yellow 
and purple. There is another peculiarity also 
in those of the Indian woods; their bones, 
which, when boiled, with us are white, as 
every body knows, in those are as black as 
ebony. 
No animal in the world has greater courage 
than the game cock, when opposed to one of 
his own species ; and in every part of the 
world where refinement and polished man- 
ners have not entirely taken place, ceck- 
iighting is a principal diversion. In China, 
India, the Philippine islands, and all over the 
East, cock-fighting is the sport and amuse- 
ment even of kings and princes. With us it 
is declining every day; and it is hoped it will 
in time be utterly banished. 
The cock claps his wings before he sings or 
crows. His sight is very piercing; and he 
never fails to cry in a peculiar manner when 
be discovers any bird of prey in the air. His 
extraordinary courage is thought to proceed 
from his being the most salacious of all other 
birds whatsoever. A single cock suffices for 
ten or a dozen hens. 
The hen seldom clutches a brood of chick- 
ens above once a season, though instances 
have been known in which they have pro- 
duced two. The number of eggs a domestic 
lien will lay in the year are above two hun- 
dred, provided she is well fed and supplied 
with water and liberty. Ten or twelve chick- 
ens are the greatest number that a good hen 
can rear and clutch at a time ; but as this 
bears no proportion to the number of her eggs, 
schemes have been imagined to clutch all the 
eggs Tf a hen, and thus turn her produce to 
the greatest advantage. See Hatching. 
Of this species Mr. Latham enumerates no 
less than 13 permanent varieties, beginning 
with the wild cock, which is a third less in the 
body than the domestic cock. This variety 
he imagines to be the original stock whence 
all our domestic varieties have sprung. They 
appear to be natives of the forests of India. 
There are but few places, however, as Mr. 
Latham goes on to observe, where the djf- 
P H A 
ferent voyagers have not met with cocks and 
hens, either wild or tame ; and mention has 
been particularly made of finding them at St. 
Jago, Pulo Conclore, isle of Timor, Philippine 
and Molucca Isles, Sumatra and Java, New 
Guinea, Tinian, and most of the isles of the 
South Seas. 
2 . The motmot, or Guinea pheasant, is 
brownish, somewhat red below, with a wedge- 
like tail, and wants spurs. 3. The colcbicus 
is red, with a blue head, a wedge-shaped tail, 
papiilous cheeks. It is a native of Africa and 
Asia. 4. The argus is yellowish, with black 
spots, a red face, and a blue crest on the back 
part of the head. It is found in Chinese 
Tartary. 5. The pictus has a yellowish crest, 
a red breast, and a wedge-shaped tail. It is 
a native of China. See Plate Nat. Hist, 
fig. 331. 
Mr. Latham enumerates nine different 
species of pheasants, and of the common phea- 
sant he reckons six varieties. The first which 
he describes is the superb pheasant. This 
bird Linnaeus described from the various re- 
presentations of it painted on paper-hangings 
and China-ware ; and farther confirmed by 
a figure and description in a Chinese book 
which came under his inspection. 
“ We have lately seen,” says Latham, “ a 
drawing of the tail feather of a bird of the 
pheasant kind, which measured above six feet 
in length, and which, it is probable, must have 
belonged to some bird not hitherto come to 
our knowledge. The drawing is in the pos- 
session of major Davies, who took it from the 
original feather ; two of which were in the 
possession of a gentleman of his acquaintance, 
and were brought from China. They are 
exactly in shape of the two middle feathers of 
the painted pheasant; the general colour is 
that of a fine blue grey, margined on the sides 
with a rufous cream-colour, and marked on 
each side the shaft with numerous bars of 
black; between 70 and 80 bars in all, those 
on the opposite sides of the shaft seldom cor- 
responding with each other. 
“ The argus, though a native of China, is 
very commonly found in the woods of Suma- 
tra, where it is called coo-ow. It is found 
extremely difficult to be kept alive for any 
considerable time after catching it in the 
woods; never for more than a month. It 
seems to have an antipathy to the light, being 
quite inanimate in the open day ; but when 
kept in a dark place it appears perfectly at 
ease, and sometimes makes its note or call, 
from which it takes its name, and which is ra- 
ther plaintive, and not harsh like that of a 
peacock. The flesh resembles that of the 
common pheasant.” 
For the parraka, which Mr. Latham reckons 
a variety of the common pheasant, and which 
is found' in the woods of America, and re- 
markable for its loud cry, see Plate Nat. 
Hist. fig. 330. 
PIIASMA, a genus of insects of the order 
hemiptera ; the generic character is, head 
large; antenna; filiform ; eyes small, rounded; 
stemmata three, between the eyes ; wings 
four, membranaceous, the upper pair abbre- 
viated, the lower pleated ; feet formed for 
walking. 
This, which is not, strictly speaking, a 
Linnsean genus, being formed from some of 
the Linniean mantes, differs from the genus 
mantis in having all the legs equally formed 
for walking, or without the falciform joint, 
which distinguishes the fore-legs in the genus- 
mantis. The antenna; are setaceous, and 
the head large and broad : to these characters 
may be added the shortness -of the upper 
wings or hemelytra, which scarcely cover 
more than about a third part cf the body, 
while the lower wings, are often very large and 
long. In their mode of life the phasmaU; dif- 
fer trom the mantes; feeding entirely on ve- 
getable food. In the extraordinary appear- 
ance of many of its species this genus is at 
least equal to that to which we allude. 
The most remarkable is the phasma gigas, 
or giant phasma. Chiantis gigas, Lin.) ' This 
insect measures six or eight inches in length, 
and is ot a very lengthened shape both in 
thorax and abdomen, .which are of a sub- 
cylindric form, the thorax being roughened 
on the edges and upper surface by numerous 
small spines or tubercles ; the upper wings 
are small, green, and veined like the leaves 
of a plant, while the lower are very ample, 
reaching half the length of the body or farther, 
of a very pale transparent brown, elegantly 
varied and tesselated by darker spots and 
patches; the legs are of moderate length, with 
the joints roughened by spines. The larva 
and pupa of this species bear a more singular 
appearance than even the complete insect, 
greatly resembling, on a general view, a piece 
of dry stick with several small broken twigs 
adhering to it ; for this reason it has been 
generally known in collections by the name 
of the walking-stick, and under this title is 
figured in Edwards’s Gleanings of Natural 
History, and many other publications. It is, 
however, probable, that though of a pale 
brown in its dry state, it is in reality green 
when living ; the natural colour fading after 
death, as in many others of this tribe, it is a 
native of the island of Amboina. It may be 
added, that this insect either runs into several 
varieties as to size and Some other particulars, 
or that there exist in reality many distinct 
species, which have been confounded under 
one common name. 
The phasma dilatatum is another extraor- 
dinary species, and seems to have been first 
described in the fourth volume of the Trans- 
actions of the Linnxan Society, by Mr. John 
Parkinson. 
It is supposed to be a native of Asia, and 
belongs to that tribe of insects which Stoll lias 
called spectres, and which constitute a dis- 
tinct genus from that of mantis. It measures 
six inches and a quarter from the upper part 
or top of the head to the extremity of the 
abdomen. The whole animal is of a flattened 
form, more especially on the abdomen, which 
measures about an inch and a half across in 
its broadest part : the thorax is of an obtusely 
rhomboidal form, the slides sloping each way 
from the flattish upper part. The whole thorax 
is not only edged with spines, but has also se- 
veral very sharp ones distantly scattered over 
its surface. The head rises up backwards into 
an obtusely conic shape, and has several very 
strong and large spines or processes. The 
abdomen is edged, almost throughout its 
whole length, with a continued series of small 
spines, to the number of five on the side of 
each individual segment: the extreme seg- 
ments are without spines. The thighs or first 
joints of the lower pair of legs are in this in- 
sect remarkably strong, of a somewhat trian- 
gular shape, and beset with some strong 
: spines ; but the tibia; or second joints are 
