THE COMMON PHEASANT 
each case found that the ovary had been destroyed by a shot -wound, 
the pellet being embedded in the organ, and having caused a tumorous 
growth. 
Males assuming female plumage . — Occasionally very old males, and more 
often young males of the year assume a plumage like that of the female 
to a greater or less extent; the tail-feathers of the latter often presenting 
the blended characters of both sexes, the proximal part being male and 
the distal part female, or the reverse. This assumption of the female 
plumage, in young birds at least, appears to be invariably due to con- 
stitutional weakness, and in all the specimens examined the testes were 
normal. In most cases the birds appear to outgrow this weakness and 
assume the normal male plumage at the following moult. 
Variation in colour . — Variation in colour amongst pheasants is not very 
common. The best known is the so-called Bohemian pheasant, which has 
the general colour of the plumage light brownish -buff. White birds, and 
partially white birds are comparatively common among hand -reared 
pheasants, but I have never seen one among wild birds of the different 
species met with in Asia. 
General distribution . — Owing to the introduction of the common 
pheasant into most countries of Europe, its natural range is now difficult 
to define. Both its generic and specific names are derived from a river 
of Transcaucasia, the Colchian Phasis, marked on modern maps as the 
Rion, which enters the Black Sea near Poti. According to Mr S. A. Buturlin 
the true habitat of this species is very restricted, and confined to the 
western parts of Transcaucasia, bordering the south-eastern and eastern 
coasts of the Black Sea, and extending northwards as far as Sukhum- 
kale. It is also found in a wild state through the northern portions of Asia 
Minor, Greece, Southern Turkey, along the western shores of the Black 
Sea as far north as the Balkans, and in Albania. It may, however, have 
been introduced into these countries at some remote period and also 
into the island of Corsica, where it is known to have occurred since 1531. 
It was undoubtedly imported at a very early period from the River Phasis 
to the shores of Southern Greece, and was well-known and highly 
appreciated as a bird for the table by the Romans in the middle of the 
first century A.D. This is proved by the references to the pheasant made 
in the works of several of the early Latin writers, and the River Phasis 
was said to have been stripped of its birds to supply the luxury and 
extravagance of the dwellers in ancient Rome. 
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