COMMON PHEASANT. 
291 
First primary flight-feather about equal to the eighth, and 
considerably longer than the tenth. 
The male has the sides of the head covered with naked 
scarlet skin ; there is no crest, but the ear-tufts are considerably 
lengthened, and the feet are armed with a pair of spurs 
{Grant). 
The genus Phasianus is almost entirely Palaearctic in habitat, 
and contains eighteen species, the stronghold of the genus 
being Central Asia. 
I. THE COMMON PHEASANT.* PHASIANUS COLCHICUS. 
Phasiatius coMiicuSylAnn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 271 (1766); Macgill 
Brit. B. i. p. 114 (1837); Dresser, B. Eur. vii. p. 85, pi. 
469 (1879); B. O. U. List Brit. B. p. 141 (1883); 
Saunders, ed. Yarrell’s Brit. B. iii. p. 91 (1883) ; 
Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. ii. p. 445 (1884) ; Saunders, Man. 
Brit. B. p. 4S5 (1889) ; Grant, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxii. p. 
320 (1893); Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B. part xxxiii. (1896). 
Adult 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 former narrowly margined with 
purplish-green, the latter 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 purplish-lake. Lower back, 
rump, and upper tail-coverts red maroon, glossed with purplish- 
lake or oily green, according to the way the skin is held. 
Most of the wing-coverts sandy-brown ; middle of breast and 
sides of belly dark purplish-green ; middle of belly and rest of 
under parts dark brown mixed with rufous. Tail-feathers 
olive down the middle, with narrow, wide-set, black bars, and 
widely edged on each side with rufous, glossed with purplish- 
lake. Total length, 37-5 inches; wing, lo'i ; tail, 21-2; 
tarsus, 2-8. 
Adult Female. — General colour sandy-brown, barred with 
black; back and sides of the neck tinged with pinkish and 
* The account of this species is again copied from Mr. Ogilvie Gram’s 
volume (Allen’s Nat. Libr. xii. p, 9). 
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