THE LIVING WORLD. 
363 
ers are much brighter, of white and black. The wings, however, are yet more 
beautiful, charmingly bedecked with gradations of jetty black, deep brown, and 
with orange, fawn, olive and white, in exquisite combination. The tail has two 
extremely long central feathers, sometimes measuring as 
much as four feet and bewitchingly marked with pris¬ 
matic colors, re-inforced by secondary feathers of equal 
gorgeousness. When flying the long tail trails behind 
with a positively dazzling effect, which is not seen when 
the bird is on the ground, except it be in the courting 
season, when the male disports his plumage by expand¬ 
ing both tail and wing feathers and strutting about 
like the peacock. Its size is equal to that of a guinea- 
fowl. 
The Shining Pheasant {Lophophorus impeyanus ), 
of Thibet, is another gorgeous specimen, with plumage 
reflecting metallic hues of fiery red, green, purple 
and gold, and rivalling the richest clothed humming¬ 
birds of South America. In the summer season they 
ascend to great elevations of the Himalayas, but in 
winter they return in large flocks to the lower alti¬ 
tudes, the two sexes, however, being separated. Great 
numbers at this time are killed for their skins, and /** TT o 
1 - 1 , . 1 r 1 • • ARGUS PHEASANT. 
they are fast disappearing by reason ot the pernicious 
demands of fashion in what we wontingly call civilized lands. 
_ __ The American Pheasant (P. col- 
chiciis) is also a pretty bird, or rather 
the male is, for the female of all the 
several species has a dull plumage, and 
much less expanse and length of tail. 
It is found, but only occasionally now, 
in the woods east of the Mississippi and 
north of the Ohio. Like all of the 
family, it is a ground-loving bird, a splen¬ 
did runner, and so crafty, as well as swift 
of flight, that they are most difficult to 
shoot. Their color also, at times, blends so perfectly with the woods, that only 
a trained eye is quick to perceive them. I once 
stood for nearly an 
hour vainly striv¬ 
ing to catch sight 
of a pheasant that 
I heard “ drum¬ 
ming” on a log, 
which I knew to 
be not fifty yards 
distant. At last 
discouraged, I 
stepped from my hiding place, and at once the bird took flight from the very 
spot where I supposed it to be, and at which I had been steadfastly gazing so 
SAND PHEASANT (P. exustus). 
AMERICAN PHEASANT. 
SHINING PHEASANT. 
