TO 
! 
P II A S I A N U S. 
fo large. In hedge-rows, or in open hollow covers, a 
brace of high-mettled pointers are by far the belt for this 
fport. 
See from the brake the whirring pheafant fprings, 
And mounts exulting on triumphant wings. 
Short is his joy; he feels the fiery wound, 
Fluttersin blood, and panting beats the ground ; 
Ah ! what avails his gloffy varying dyes, 
His purple creft, his fcarlet-circled eyes, 
The vivid green his fliining plumes unfold, 
His painted wings, and bread: that flames with gold ! 
Pope's Windfor Foreji. 
The common pheafant is reprefented on the annexed 
Plate II. fig. i. 
Salerne remarks, that the hen-pheafant, when advanced 
in years, and done laying and fitting, will in great part 
acquire the plumage of the male, and after that become 
fo little refpedled by him, as to be treated with the fame 
incivility as he would fliow to one of his own fex. He 
mentions this as a new obfervation : but it is far more 
common than may be generally fuppofed, and was long 
ago noticed by Edwards. He mentions an example of 
one kept in the menagerie of the duke of Leeds ; and re¬ 
marks that this change is mod likely to happen to hens in 
a confined date. The circumdance of the hen acquiring 
the plumage of the cock, after a certain time, is not con¬ 
fined to the pheafant alone; the indance of the pea-hen 
belonging to lady Tynte, which was in the Leverian mu- 
feum, evinces the contrary, which, after having many 
broods, got much of the fine plumage of the cock, with 
the addition even of the train-feathers. The female alfo 
of the rock-manakin is faid to get the plumage of the 
oppofite fex after a number of years; and perhaps, if ob- 
ferved hereafter, this may be found to be the cafe with 
many other fpecies. The late Mr. John Hunter has an 
ingenious paper to this eii'edl, publifhed in vol. lxx. of 
the Philofophical Tranfadfions. 
£. Ph. torquatus, the ring-pheafant: a very beautiful 
bird, which differs in having a ring of pure white round 
the neck; and the colours of the plumage are more dif- 
tin< 5 l and refplendent, particularly the feathers of the 
low er part of the neck and bread, which are more deeply 
indented than in the common, each feather appearing- 
double at the end. Thefe are found wild in fome of the 
wooded provinces of China. They are alfo common 
about the Cafpian Sea, and in the fouthern part of the 
defert betvveen the Don and Wolga ; alfo in Great Tar¬ 
tary, in the fouth of the Mongolian defert, and in St. He¬ 
lena. This elegant breed was introduced into England 
by fir Harry Featherdone, at Up Park in Suffex ; where 
they have multiplied fo abundantly, as to have docked 
mod of the extenfive coverts on that fide of the king¬ 
dom. 
y. Ph. varius, the variegated pheafant: this is white, 
more or lefs marked in various parts with the fimilar co¬ 
lours to pheafants in common. 
Ph. albus, the white pheafant: a beautiful variety, 
entirely white, except a few minute black fpots about the 
neck, and fome rufous ones on thefcapulars. In the Le¬ 
verian Mufeum was one wholly white. 
c. Ph. hybrida, the hybrid pheafant: begot between 
the pheafant and common domellic hen; a circumdance 
which frequently happens when farm-yards are adjoining 
to woods where pheafants abound. The eyes are fur- 
rounded with a red fkin, and a few fpots of white on the 
crown of the head; upper part of the back rufous, va¬ 
ried with brown and white ; from thence to the tail afh- 
colour, eroded with black ; belly, thighs, and under tail- 
coverts, pale brown, alh-colour, and dulky, mixed ; wing 
coverts much like the back : greater quills pale brown ; 
tail black in the middle; bill and legs grey. This is 
Brifi'on’s defeription. That in the Leverian Mufeum 
had very few markings, being almod throughout of a 
dingy reddilh-brown colour. 
Ph. gallo-pavonis, the turkey pheafant: a very large 
and elegant bird, got between the pheafant and turkey: 
extent of wing thirty-two inches. Round the eyes is a 
bare red fkin, the charadteriftic of the pheafant; the red: 
of the head is wholly covered with feathers: the plumage 
is a mixture allied both to the turkey and pheafant. 
Three or four of thefe Angular birds were met with near 
Hanford in Dorfetfhire, in the large coverts of which one 
was killed, and fent by H. Seymer, efq. to Mr. Edwards, 
who firft publifhed it in his Gleanings. 
In the Hift. des Oif. a bird by the name of Demi Poitle 
d'Inde is faid to proceed from the cock and the turkey. 
It is moftly of a dark colour, like a vulture; has neither 
comb nor wattles, carries the tail likea turkey, and (lands 
very high on its legs. It is faid to be peculiar to the 
ifland of Java, where it is kept merely for the fake of 
fighting. 
3. Phafianus pidlus, the golden pheafant: creft yellow, 
bread fcarlet, fecondary quill-feathers blue; tail wedged. 
In beauty and magnificence this fpecies excels every 
other of the genus. It is fomewhat lefs than the com¬ 
mon pheafant; but the tail is longer, fo that the total 
length is about two feet nine inches and a half. The ge¬ 
neral colour of the plumage is bright crimfon ; on the 
head is a mod beautiful gloffy gold cred, the feathers of 
which appear like filk, and fall backwards; cheeks almod 
bare and dedi-coloured ; bill yellow; the feathers of the 
hind-head are orange-coloured, fquare at the heads, and 
eroded with black lines; thefe are long, and can be 
eredled at will, like thofe on the neck of the cock; be¬ 
neath thefe the feathers are green, very little rounded at 
the ends, and tipped with black: the back and rump are 
yellow; the upper tail-coverts long, narrow, and crim¬ 
fon, and fall on each fideof the tail; the wing-covertsare 
chefnut and brown mixed ; fcapulars blue ; quills browm , 
marked with yellowidi fpots; the tail is long and cunei¬ 
form, the longed feather twenty-three inches, and the 
outer one very fhort; the colour chefnut and black beau¬ 
tifully variegated ; the legs are yellow, and furnifhed with 
a fpur a quarter of an inch in length. This fpecies is re¬ 
prefented at fig. 2. 
The female is fntaller, and wants the gaudy colours of 
the male. The irides are hazel; the feathers of the head 
longilh; the general colour of the plumage brOwn, varie¬ 
gated with yellowifh brown ; the tail is fhorter, but not 
much unlike that of the male; the legs have no fpurs. 
The native place of this beautiful fpecies is China, where 
it is called hi 11hi. It bears confinement well, and will 
breed readily in that date, infomuchas to render needlefs 
any importation from their native country. The eggs 
are redder than thofe of our pheafants, fomewhat refem- 
bling thofe of the Guinea fowl. They will alfo breed 
with our common pheafant: an indance of it is men¬ 
tioned by Buft'on, which produced two male birds; one 
of which paired with a female common pheafant, and had 
one young, which was a female. They appear to be har¬ 
dy birds, and it will be no wonder if future generations 
fliould fee them as perfedlly naturalifed to this climate as 
the common one. The flavour of their flefli is faid to 
exceed that of any other pheafant. This fpecies is parti¬ 
cularly fubjedt to change the appearance of fex. Ed¬ 
wards records the circumdance in refpedl to fome kept 
by lady Eflex, the females of which, in the fpace of fix 
years, gradually gained the male feathers: and we are 
likewife further informed, that it is not unufual for the 
hen birds, when about four or five years old, to be ne- 
gledted by the cocks, and gradually, as they become bar¬ 
ren, to gain the plumage of the males. 
Major Davies brought from China a drawing of the 
tail-feather of a bird of the pheafant kind, which mea- 
fured above fix feet in length, and which, it is probable, 
mull have belonged to fome bird not hitherto come to 
our knowledge. They are exadlly in (hape of the two 
middle feathers of the Chinefe golden pheafant; the ge¬ 
neral colour of a fine blue grey, margined on the fides 
with 
