. Animals in menageries. the legs are fea-thered just below the knees, and are of the same colour :the tail is of a beautiful and delicate cinnamon colour,verging towards orange ; it has fourteen feathers, shghtlyrounded, and rather darker at their tips. The tarsus hasone strong spur. The female is somewhat smaller than the male, anddoes not appear to have the resplendent crest whichornaments that sex ; its colours, likewise, are totallydifferent. The upper plumage is dark brown; eachfeather being pale fulvous in the middle, mottled withthe general hue of the back, in such a way as not to begr
. Animals in menageries. the legs are fea-thered just below the knees, and are of the same colour :the tail is of a beautiful and delicate cinnamon colour,verging towards orange ; it has fourteen feathers, shghtlyrounded, and rather darker at their tips. The tarsus hasone strong spur. The female is somewhat smaller than the male, anddoes not appear to have the resplendent crest whichornaments that sex ; its colours, likewise, are totallydifferent. The upper plumage is dark brown; eachfeather being pale fulvous in the middle, mottled withthe general hue of the back, in such a way as not to begreatly different, as Dr. Latham remarks, to those onthe back of the great eared owl: beneath the eye isa broad dusky white stripe. The quill feathers areblack ; but the lesser are banded also with ferruginous :the tail is brown, and hardly exceeds the wings ; whilethe legs have only a tubercle in place of the spur seenin the male. 172 amafals in menageries. The Ring-necked Pheasant. Phasianus torquatus, Tenim. {Fig. 24.). M. Temminck, who has paid much attention to therasorial birds, was the first to point out the distinctionsbetween the genuine ring-necked pheasant of China,and those hybrid races, wliich, from having originatedfrom crosses with tlie common species, had inducedornithologists to beheve that the species itself was amere variety. It should, and we believe it will, be oneof the primary objects of the Ornithological Societyto preserve all those real species of rasorial birds whichmay come into their possession, pure and distinct; sothat, whatever hybrid races may arise from crossing thedifferent breeds, examples of the true species may bealways seen and consulted. This elegant bird is stated to be very common in thenorthern provinces of the Chinese empire, where it isfound in the same districts and places as the commonEuropean species; with which, however, in a state ofnature, it does not associate. Independently of its pecu-liarities of plumage, the eggs of the ring
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Keywords: ., bookauthorrichmondch, bookcentury1800, booksubjectanimalbehavior
