COMMON PHEASANT 
PHASIANUS COLCHICUS 
(Plate XIV) 
Phasianus colchicus, Linn., Syst. Nat., i, p. 271 (1766); Gould, Birds Europe, pi. 247 (1837); 
id.. Birds Asia, vii, pi. 34 (1869) ; Elliot, Monogr. Phasian. ii, pi. 2 (1872) ; Dresser, Birds 
Europe, vii, p. 85, pi. 469 (1879) ; Ogilvie-Grant, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xxii, p. 320 (1893) ; 
id.. Handbook Game Birds, ii, p. 9 (1897) ; Macpherson, in “ Fur and Feather Series” 
Pheasants, (1895); Buturlin, Ibis, 1904, pp. 379, 385 ; 1908, pp. 584, 586; Millais, Nat. Hist. 
Brit. Game Birds, p. 74, pi. (1909). 
Walsingham and Pay; e-Gallwey, in the “Badminton lAhrary,” Field and Covert, Pheasant, 
p. 181 (1886). 
DULT male. — Crown of the head bronze -green ; rest of the 
head and neck dark -green, shading into purple on the 
/ sides and front of the neck. Feathers of the mantle, 
/" chest, breast, and flanks fiery orange ; the first narrowly 
/ margined with purplish -green, the three last named 
Vk. widely edged with rich purple ; those of the upper back 
and scapulars mottled in the middle with black and buff, margined by 
consecutive bands of buff, black, and orange -red, and tipped with pur- 
plish-lake. Lower back, rump and upper tail -coverts red -maroon, glossed 
with purplish -lake or oily -green, according to the way in which the light 
falls on the feathers. Most of the wing-coverts sandy-brown or clay- 
brown; middle of the breast and sides of the belly dark purplish -green; 
middle of the belly and rest of the underparts dark -brown, mixed with 
rufous. Quills brown, barred and mottled with whitish -buff. Tail-feathers 
olive down the middle, with narrow, wide-set black bars and widely- 
edged on each side with rufous, glossed with purplish -lake. Iris dark- 
brown; naked skin on the sides of the face, and wattles crimson-scarlet; 
bill whitish-horn-colour; legs and toes brownish -horn -colour, the former 
armed with a pair of spurs. 
Total length about 37*5 inches; wing 10 inches; tail 21 inches; tarsus 
2*8 inches. 
Males in first autumn -plumage resemble the adult, but the plumage is 
less pure and bright, the tail is shorter, and the spurs are much less 
developed. 
Adult female . — General colour sandy-brown, barred with black; feathers 
of the back and sides of the neck tinged with pinkish and with metallic 
purple or green margins ; those of the mantle, sides of the breast and 
flanks chestnut, with black middles and pinkish-grey margins; an elon- 
gated patch of white black -tipped feathers below the eyes; quills more 
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