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G. H. Edwards—Pheasants



and Japan—for the Sea of Japan would then be but a vast inland

lake, and the Yellow Sea and the Korea Strait would be low-lying

ground.


P. colchicus still ranges the region of the Caucasus, and, widely

distributed as the species are, the varieties of the species phasianus

have still much in common, being not only structurally alike, but

alike, too, in habits. The encroachment of the seas which gradually

filled up the marshes and saltings, causing lands to become islands,

and the various climatic changes which the world underwent through

the ages segregated the birds and restricted their range, and changes

took place. Environment alone—a mighty factor—gradually modelled

them to their new conditions of life, and coupled with much inter¬

breeding, in some cases, and crossing of blood, the varieties became

distinct in their differences. Plumage underwent changes—exactly

why it is hard to tell, but the puzzle of plumage is always a matter of

wonder, and it is difficult to find a satisfactory explanation for the

sometimes highly specialized feathering of birds.


Power of Flight


Pheasants—the large and varied group of them—are poor on the

wing. We can say of some of them that they are fast flyers, but their

progress through the air might better be described as gliding or para¬

chuting. An initial rush of wings to take them up, and then they take

advantage of wind and slope to allow gravitation to give them speed.


The Dodo lost its power of flight and became extinct—man exter¬

minated it—but I doubt whether Pheasants ever had the power of real

flight, and am inclined to the view that they have always been of

terrestrial habit. Some Pheasants are becoming scarce, if not extinct.

This unpleasant fact is not due to atrophied wings, but to the fact that

vast tracts of land have been brought into cultivation, and the advance

of civilization in the once almost impenetrable fastnesses has destroyed

the sanctuaries of many species. Where the natives once matched

cunning against wariness to trap an occasional bird, they have since

made use of wholesale methods of catching—the incentive being the

white man’s trade in the birds for the sake, in many cases, of the feathers

for millinery and decorative wants. Nowadays the natives have



