34 THE NATURAL HISTORY 
vare margined at the end with black, in the fhape 
of aheart, like fome of the feathers in the Pea- 
_cock’s tail. 
The plumage of the hen is not nearly fo beau- 
tiful as that of the cock, for that is richly glofled 
with colours that feem to change with the fitua- 
tion of the eye. 
The tail is compofed of eighteen feathers, the 
two middlemoft are the longeit, and the toes are 
joined by a membrane, which is larger than is 
ufual with thofe birds who throw duft among 
their feathers, 
The Pheafant receives its name from the place 
where it was firft found. Same Greeks, called 
Argonauts, who were failing up the river Phafis, 
in order to arrive at Colchis (which is in Afia 
Minor, or Turkey in Afia,) firft faw thefe beau- 
tiful birds, and brought them into Greece, (which 
is now Turkey in Europe.) | 
‘The Pheafants of that country, and of Min- 
-grelia, are the largeft and the moit beautiful that 
are known: they. are now diftributed almoft 
-over the world, many are wild in Great Britain, 
- particularly in the county of Norfolk. 
| They delight in woods, in low fituations ; they 
rooft on the tops of trees, with their heads under 
one of their wings, ; 
They 
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