PHEASANT. 183 
shorter than the primaries, and more tinged with brown on 
the outer edges. The tail is slightly arched, and of eighteen 
feathers; the two middle ones frequently measure as much 
as two feet—more or less according to age. It is pale 
yellowish brown with a tinge of green, with narrow transverse 
black bars about an inch apart, and a broad border of dull 
red on each side, the loose margins glossed with green and 
purple: the outer feathers are the shortest, and the shafts 
dusky; upper tail coverts, hght brownish red; under tail 
coverts, variegated with reddish. The legs, light brownish 
lead-colour, have conical spurs behind, about a quarter of an 
inch long, dull the first year: ‘they have about seventeen plates 
in each of their anterior series.’ Toes, light brownish lead- 
colour; the first one, which is very small, with five, the second 
with twelve, the third twenty-two, the fourth nineteen scales, 
or thereabouts. Claws, brown. 
The female resembles the male. Length, two feet two inches; 
bill; horn-colour, tinged with green: over the eye is a bare 
space, but more feathered than in the male; the head has the 
feathers on the crown somewhat elongated and tinged with 
red; neck on the back and nape, yellowish brown tinged with 
red; throat and breast, paler and less mottled than in the 
male; back, greyish yellow, variegated with black and yellowish 
brown. The wings extend to the width of two feet six inches; 
primaries, pale greyish brown, mottled with greyish yellow; 
the tail is much shorter than in the male; it is yellowish grey, 
minutely mottled with black, and with oblique irregular spots 
of black, with a pale yellow line on the centre of each feather. 
The legs, brown, have about seventeen scales in each row; the 
toes, darker brown; the first toe, says Macgillivray, has five 
scales, the second nine to fifteen, the third twenty-two, the 
fourth seventeen or eighteen. Claws, dark brown.. 
The young of the year, in their first plumage, resemble 
the females; being of a dull greyish yellow, variegated with 
brown and black. The females are the dullest, and the space 
under the eye is more feathered. 
The Pheasant is far from unfrequently found with more 
or less variegation of plumage. It appears unquestionable 
that this, as might not unnaturally be expected as the result 
of some constitutional infirmity, is in many instances, though 
not in all, transmitted from the parent to the offspring; in 
some, part of the progeny are pied, and part of the ordinary 
colour. Pied young have been known to be produced from’ a 
