PHEASANT (Al'. jcs(Int. fesaunt, ?)F., Fr.
iso H. from Lat. phusian us, from Gk. ouatav6s, pleasant, t41olap6s, to the Phasis, from Pioisis. name of a river in ('olchis, where the birds are said to have abounded). A large group of handsome gallinaceous birds of the family Phasianiffie, and especially of the sub family Phasinnime. 'they have the cheeks and skin around the eves destitute of feathers: the wings short. and the tail usually more or less elongated; and the feet of the cocks spurred. The males are always birds of splendid plumage, while the are generally quite incon spicuous. The name pheasant yeas }inst applied to the bird now s11 extensively naturalized in Western Europe, and came from the Phasis River. on whose banks the birds are said to have been very abundant. and whence they W1•11e first br011ght to Europe before the fourteenth century. it is now the standard game-bird of Great Brit ain. and bred and 'preserved' for the annual season in enormous numbers. The plumage of the common pheasant (Plias/anus Cc?h-hoes) is very handsome. The head and neck of the cock are steel blue. reflecting brown, green. and purple tints in different lights; the back and wings exhibit a fine mixture of orange red, black, brown. and light yellow: the breast and belly are golden-red. each feather margined with black, and retleetiwz tints of gold and purple. The whole length of a Male is about three feet, of which the tail often meas ures two feet. The entire length of the female i; about two feet, and the general color is pale yillowish-brown, varied with darker brown, the side, of the neck tinged with red and "Teen. See Colored Plate of ClAmr: Mims, under ';not SE.
The ordinary weight if a pheasant is about two and a half: but when abundantly supplied with fond, and kept undi;turbed. they are sometime- pllids in weight. PheasantS, unlike grouse. are polvonmous.
The nest of the pheasant is on the ground. and is a rude heap of leaves and grasses. in which
eleven or twelve nlive•brown are laid exist, in English preserves. the eggs are taken by the gamekeeper, and hatched by hells. Very young must be carefully supplied with ants, eggs, maggots, etc., and the whole difficulty of rearing than is ill their earliest stage. Adult pheasants feed indiscriminately on berries, seeds, roots. young ;hoot; of plants, worms, insects, etc. They roost in trees. The male pheasant takes flight much more readily than the female, which often remains still until the sportsman is zilinost upon her. The males and female's do not associate together except during the breeding season. but small numbers of 1111e ",(•x are often found in company. The 'short Crow' of begins to be heard in March. In England and Scotland pheasant-shooting legally begins on Oc tober 1st and ends on February 3d. The pheas ants turned out from the gamekeeper's breeding yard into a preserve are in general supplied with abundance of food during winter, and come to the accustomed call as readily as any kind of poultry, so that the sportsmanship of a bat 1 ue, in which they are killed by scores or hundreds, is of the lowest kind. The pheasant exhibits a remarkable readiness to hybridize with other gallinaceous birds: a hybrid between it and the common fowl is not infrequent, and is called a iwro. Hybrids with the black grouse have also occurred. The flesh is excellent for eating.
The common pheasant is typical of the xyliole group. The genus Phasianus contains some fif teen other species, all natives of Central or East ern Asia. Of these, Reeve's pheasant of North ern China is a large bird with notably white and edible flesh. Tlw general color is golden yellow, each feather barred with black; the flanks are white with a chestnut margin, and the belly is black. The tail is extremely long, the central feathers sometimes measuring five or six feet ; they are white margined with buff and barred with black and chestnut.