PHASIANUS COLCHICUS, Linn.
Common Pheasant.
Phasianus Colchicus, Linnaeus e t Auctorum.
T he generic term Phasianus has been applied to so many different forms of the Gallinacece that it will be
desirable to indicate the species to which scientific ornithologists now restrict it. By Linnaeus, the
Domestic Fowl, the Golden and Silver Pheasants, and many other allied forms were characterized under
this appellation ; in the present work I have applied it to seven species; but other ornithologists limit it to
four, namely P . Colchicus of Asia Minor, P . torquatus of China, P . Mongolicus o f Tartary, and P . versicolor
of Japan,—the other three species being P . Soemmeringii and P . scintillans (for which the generic name of
Graphephasianus has been proposed by Dr. Reichenbach) and P . Reevesii (the only known species of Wagler’s
genus Syrmaticus'). That both the Asiatic and European shores of the Black Sea are the true home of the
Common Pheasant, there can be, I believe, but little d o u b t: the ancient Colchis, from which the specific
name is derived, is the Mingrelia of the present d a y ; and there it is said to be still found wild and in
unequalled beauty; neither is it improbable that it is found in equal numbers around the Caspian, and even
further to the eastward. The Rev. T. Milner, in his ‘ Ancient and Modern History of the Crimea,’ remarks,
“ I t is singular that the Pheasant does not occur in the Peninsula, although found on the opposite side of the
narrow strait of Kertch, and all over the Caucasus.” The late Mr. G. T. Vigne informed me that he shot
it in a wild state at the Lake of Apollonia, about thirty five miles from Broussa, to the south of the Sea of
Marmora.
In a letter received from the late Mr. T. W. Atkinson, that gentlemen says:— “ In answer to your
inquiries about the Pheasants seen by me in Asia, I beg to inform you that I found the common species on
the Kezzil-a-Gateh in considerable numbers ; I have also seen several that were brought from the country
to the west of the river Ilia. In all my wanderings in the Altai I did not find a single Pheasant, or any bird
resembling it.”
The food of the Pheasant in a wild state consists of grain, seeds, green leaves, insects, and the roots of
bulbous plants.
The Pheasant makes a slight nest on the ground, in which it deposits from ten to fourteen eggs of a
uniform olive-brown colour, one inch and ten lines long, by one inch and five lines in breadth.
The male has the head and nape bronzy green ; neck and throat steel blue, with reflexions of brown,
green, and purple, according to the incidence of the lig h t; ear-coverts dark brown ; feathers of the upper
part of the back rich brownish red, with black centres, light shafts narrowly edged with a velvety black,
and an oblong spot of the same on the centre of the tip ; those of the back and scapularies purplish red, with
black centres, within which is a pointed horseshoe-shaped mark of pale buff, and a narrow line of the
same colour down the sh aft; lower part of the back and upper tail-coverts deep chestnut-red, with purple
reflexions; wing-coverts light greyish brown, with paler shafts ; primaries dull greyish brown, crossed by
interrupted bars of cream-colour; tail-feathers yellowish brown, crossed by numerous narrow transverse
imperfect bars of black, and washed with chestnut and purple on their outer margins; breast and abdomen
golden red, each feather margined with velvety black and reflecting tints of golden and b lu e ; lower part of
the abdomen, vent, and under tail-coverts brownish black; bill dull pea-green ; legs and toes horn-colour.
The upper surface of the female is blackish brown, with each feather conspicuously margined with creamy
white, a few of the feathers at the base of the neck with chestnut c entres; chin brownish white; under
surface brownish buff, the flank-feathers variegated with dark brown and reddish buff.
The figures, which represent the two sexes considerably less than the natural size, were taken from
specimens killed in Asia Minor.