. Natural history. Zoology. PHEASANTS. 237 The Common Pheasant. — Phasiaims colchicus. Southern China to Fokien and Manchuria. They are birds of the forests Hke the kahjes, and of a somewhat retired and solitary disposition, according to Mr. F. Wilson, who writes of P. macrolopha:—"In the remote forests of the interior of the Himalayas, on the report The Koklass of a gun, all the koklass pheasants within half a mile or so will Pheasants.— often crow after such a report. They will also crow after a clap Genus Pucrasia. of thunder or any loud or sudden noise, and this peculiarity seems to b
. Natural history. Zoology. PHEASANTS. 237 The Common Pheasant. — Phasiaims colchicus. Southern China to Fokien and Manchuria. They are birds of the forests Hke the kahjes, and of a somewhat retired and solitary disposition, according to Mr. F. Wilson, who writes of P. macrolopha:—"In the remote forests of the interior of the Himalayas, on the report The Koklass of a gun, all the koklass pheasants within half a mile or so will Pheasants.— often crow after such a report. They will also crow after a clap Genus Pucrasia. of thunder or any loud or sudden noise, and this peculiarity seems to be confined to those which live in the dark shady woods of the interior, as I never noticed them acting thus in the lower hills. The food of the koklass pheasants is varied, like that of the kalijes, and consists, according to Mr. Wilson, of leaves and buds, roots, grubs, acorns, seeds, berries, moss, and flowers. The nest of P. macrolopha is described as a hole scraped in the ground, and sheltered by a tuft of grass, or a bush, or rock. The species is found nesting at an elevation of from 5,000 to 11,000 feet in the ; To the genus Phasianus belong the birds which we all know fapiiliarly as pheasants, and it is interesting as representing one of the few types peculiar to the Palsearctic region. There are a great many species of the genus Phasianus scattered through Europe, Central Asia, and China, most of them being of the form and general coloration of our common pheasant {P. colchicus), which is supposed not to be a native of Western Europe, but to have been imported from the Caucasus or from Asia Minor. Recent discoveries of fossil remains, however, tend to prove that pheasants of some kind were ancient inhabitants of the western Palsearctic region, and it is quite possible that the pheasant of our own day is a descendant of these old forms, and that the story of its introduction into England by the Romans is a myth. At the present time it is very difficu
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