There are 21 so-called species of the true pheasant. Of these, 17 are only varieties, with practically no differences except in colour and size. Naturalists are not consistent in their classifications. If the 17 pheasants that include the common and the ring-necked variety are species, then all our fancy pigeons are species also, just as our numberless varieties of dogs are. The pouter and the fantail pigeons have more differences by far than any of these 17 kinds of pheasants, and the St. Bernard and the Japanese spaniel and Italian greyhound would all have been received as new species had their discoverers been naturalists. Indeed, the St. Bernard has structural differences from the others about which in any other class of animal naturalists would not hesitate for a moment. They would make a species of him for his extra toe—that is, for his double dew claw. But it does not in the least matter whether differences are marked in the index to nature as species or as varieties, since the former term has lost its original meaning, and no longer suggests a specific act of creation in the origin of things.

What matters is that the 17 varieties of pheasants are supposed to be capable of breeding together fertile offspring, no matter how they are mixed up.

But although crossing always increases size in the first few generations, and notwithstanding that every first cross amongst these 17 varieties of pheasants has been glorified in description, it is not to be expected that the cross breds maintain their glory in later generations. Unfortunately, they do not revert to one type or the other, but set up intermediate coloration.

There is no reason to suppose that the cock pheasant differs very much from the hen in the pigments within the feathers. The difference we observe is one of disposition of those pigments. In the hen the reds, the greens, the gold and purples are mixed; in the cock they are separated. In the 17 varieties of pheasants there are to be found cock birds which at every point of the feathering have the complementary colour to that which is in the same position in some other species. Even the dark edging of the feathers is in some races green and in the others purple. The backs are in some green, in others red; the breasts in some species golden, and in others green. One cannot object to the introduction of any of these 17 species so long as they are kept distinct. But we do not want our pheasants to look as variegated as a race of mongrels. The Mongolian pheasant is said to be more hardy than our own cross bred, and in that case it would probably suit us better as a bird of the coverts, but it drives away the other birds from the food, which is a good reason as well as its white wing coverts for not wishing to have it mixed with the home stock.

For some time it was believed that the Reeves pheasant would not produce fertile offspring from any of the 17 sorts typical of the common pheasant, but that is probably a mistake. Nevertheless, if it is true that the hybrids breed in the third season, any such deferred productiveness would not be likely to have the smallest effect on our pheasant stock, and consequently the Reeves pheasant can safely be turned out in the coverts without fear of changing the character of our good sporting birds. The same is true of the copper pheasant, which, in nature and Japan, exists side by side with the green-breasted versicolor, and does not inter-breed with it. As the versicolor breeds freely with our birds, and is but a variety in fact and only a species by courtesy of naturalists to each other, it is pretty certain that this copper pheasant, like the Reeves pheasant, can be safely turned loose in our coverts. But the Reeves pheasant is a great runner, and it is said that when he once does get started upon the wing he is apt not to recognise the boundary fence, and may go 20 miles on end. If this is not an exaggeration, and probably it is, the Reeves pheasant would be a most objectionable bird. But in wild countries like Wales and Scotland, where there are hills and hill coverts, there seems to be no doubt that the Reeves would beat the English bird, not only in hardihood and self-reproduction, but also in flying to the guns both faster and higher than the common pheasant. It is a bird that prefers to run up hill, in contradistinction to the instinct of preservation that induces the type race of bird to run down hill. The Hon. Walter Rothschild has spent more time and money on the pheasant family than anyone else, and probably he is the very best judge of what would acclimatise with advantage and what would not. With the reservation, then, that the author does not believe in still further mongrelising the half bred of our coverts, it is proposed to summarise Mr. Rothschild’s opinion.

The pheasants form but one section of the family PhasianidÆ, the second of the four families of the GallinÆ. The limitations of natural history are set forth by Mr. Rothschild when he says that structurally it is impossible to separate the partridges and the pheasants, and that the spurfowls (Galloperdix) and the bamboo partridges (Bambusicola) form connecting links. How true this is may be gathered from the fact that Mr. Harting described a bamboo partridge in the Field recently as a cross between a pheasant and partridge. These birds have spurs, but then the author has seen a common partridge with spurs on both legs. The legs were sent to Country Life at the time, and the spurs upon them were sharp like a two-year-old pheasant’s. Of the pheasants there are 60 species according to naturalists, divided into 12 genera. Of these, Phasianus with 21 species is the largest, and the only one which concerns sportsmen in this country. There are 17 of the varieties of the type pheasant, including the new species called after Mr. Hagenbach. There are 11 other birds called pheasants which properly belong to the peafowl. These include 7 peacock pheasants and 4 Argus pheasants, which, like many others amongst the 60 pheasants, do not fly well, and have no place in shooting. The true pheasants are distinguished by their long wedge-shaped tails and by the absence of a crest, but these have to be subdivided into the type birds that are really only varieties, and the four that are really as well as nominally different species.

These four are Phasianus ellioti and Phasianus humiÆ, which are useless for sport. Then the copper pheasant from Japan (Phasianus soemmerringi) Mr. Rothschild thinks eminently suited for the coverts. As it is a native of the same ground as the versicolor pheasant, and neither seems to damage the purity of the other, it may be accepted that its production in our coverts would not degenerate into crossing with the common pheasants. The other of these four species is Ph. reevesii, or the Reeves pheasant from China, with its 6 feet of length and, on rare occasions, 6 feet of tail. The worst that has ever been said of these two last-named species is that they fight badly and might drive away the other pheasants, but in the case of the copper pheasant the observation was only the outcome of its behaviour in pens. Mr. Walter Rothschild thinks this bird more suitable for mountainous cold districts than the common pheasant is, and that it should be given the preference in Wales and Scotland, as altogether a hardier bird than the true type pheasant. In this opinion he agrees with the late Lord Lilford, who was by far the best authority of his time. Mr. J. G. Millais wrote of this bird from having shot it at Balmacaan, on Loch Ness, and at Guisichan, near Beauly, in the same county. At the former, then the late Lord Seafield’s place, he found the bird a fraud and a failure, as in the open flat coverts it ran more than it flew, and when it was forced into the element it can make all its own, it flew low and gave no sport. But at Guisachan, Lord Tweedmouth’s place, Mr. Millais had cause to regard the bird as the finest of all the game birds that raced to the guns over the mountain pines. He described it as leaving the common pheasants and the blackcocks flustering along behind at about half the pace of this king of the air, or comet of the woods. Truly sportsmen cannot read Mr. Millais’ account without envy. But, besides the speed, the way this bird can stop itself is a revelation. It does this apparently by offering the full surface of its tail, its body, and its wings simultaneously to air resistance; and if Mr. Millais is correct as to its speed and the power it has of stopping within a few feet, it is a wonder that it does not break its feather shafts as well as itself by the sudden pressure.

Of the 17 type birds it may be said that a true line of colour distinction cannot be drawn, and that their markings run one into the other as they are found East or West and North and South. It is well to regard these two tendencies as different geographic variations, and because the birds seem to have latitude variations in common whatever their longitude may be, and longitudinal variations in common whatever their latitude may be, to hold them all one species with local colour variations and nothing more. In the West the pheasant tends to redness, in the East to greenness, both of back and breast. The extremes are observed in the old English pheasant and the versicolor of Japan. This gradation of colour from East to West is not altered by latitude. But of whatever shade and longitude the birds may be, if they are found in the North they have a large quantity of white upon them, and if in the South they have no white. It is therefore possible to settle the natural home of the pheasant almost accurately by his coloration. The old English pheasant is a native of most of Europe in our time; but the Romans obtained it from Asia Minor, and it is named by ornithologists in consequence Phasianus colchicus. In England there are now not any of this breed; ours are all mongrels.

The Persian (Ph. persicus) is a near relation to colchicus, but has very nearly white wing coverts, narrower bars on the tail, and is dark-red on the sides of the belly. It inhabits West Persia and Transcaspia, and Mr. Rothschild thinks it a good variety for introduction, as it is hardy and flies fast and high.

A near relation is the Afghan pheasant (Ph. principalis), or Prince of Wales pheasant. It only differs from the last-named variety in its whiter wings, its maroon patch under the throat, the wide purple bars on the flanks, and in the orange-red upper tail coverts. Mr. Rothschild gives it a good character for importation, and those who have shot it at home speak of it as almost aquatic in habit, and not only able but willing to swim.

The Zorasthan pheasant, or Phasianus zerasthanicus, only differs slightly in marking from the above-named variety—that is to say, it has plain brown scapulars, and much narrower borders to the breast feathers.

The Yarkand pheasant, or Ph. shawi, differs from colchicus in having a yellowish-brown rump and whitish wing coverts. Mr. Rothschild recommends its importation vi India for our English coverts.

The Siberian pheasant, or Ph. tariminsis, very closely resembles the last-named variety, but differs in the greenish rump and the buff wing coverts.

The Oxus pheasant, or Ph. chrysomelas, comes from Amu-Darya. It is distinguished for its general sandy-brown colour and the very broad green bars on all feathers of the under side of the body.

The Mongolian pheasant has been introduced largely by reason of Mr. Rothschild’s recommendation. It is known from all the others by the rich red of the flanks, the green gloss of the plumage, the very broad white neck ring and white wings. It is a very large bird. There is one point on which it is open to doubt whether this bird has not met more than its meed of praise. It is considerably heavier than the common pheasant, and is said to fly better. But the last statement is a little difficult to accept, for the bird is not like the Reeves pheasant, different in feathers, structure, and proportion of wing to weight. It is merely a very big common pheasant differently coloured and having everything in true proportion. It ought therefore, by reason of its weight, to fly worse than lighter birds. For big birds to fly as fast as small ones they require not only the same proportionate wing power and space, but greater.

Stone’s pheasant, or Ph. elegans, is almost a green bird, like versicolor, except upon the flanks and shoulders. It is not well known.

The pheasant of Tibet, or Ph. vlangalii, is pale sandy on the upper parts, and has golden-buff flanks.

Perjvalsky’s pheasant, or Ph. strauchi, differs from Stone’s pheasant by its orange-red flanks instead of the dark-green and the dark-red scapulars with light buff centres. It is recommended for introduction without much hope of attainment. Its home is Gansu.

The West Chinese pheasant differs from the ring-necked Chinese bird by the absence of a ring of white; its scientific name is Ph. decollatus.

The ring-necked pheasant, or Ph. torquatus, was introduced from China to St. Helena about 1513 A.D. In England its first introduction is unrecorded, but it exists here no longer in a pure state. It is flourishing in New Zealand, and also in America. In some of the States, including Oregon, it has bred so largely as to be a positive nuisance to agriculture.

Two more pheasants, only slightly differing from the ring-necked bird of China, are Ph. formosanus and Ph. satchennensis.

The Japanese pheasant, or Ph. versicolor, is a beautiful bird with a dark-green breast. It was introduced by Lord Derby in 1840, and although the early crosses were no doubt large and beautiful, in the natural course of things, when colours came to blend, as they do not at first, a mongrel coloration would have been certain had not the crossing been so limited as to make no difference.

Of these 17 true type pheasants it is usual only to take account of the cocks. In the above not a word has been said of the equally important hens, that are practically all alike, which is additional proof that these are not species, and are only local varieties, breeding a little less true to colour than the varieties of fancy pigeons and fancy fowls.

The golden pheasant is not of the same genus as those above, but is closely allied to Lady Amherst’s pheasant. The former does not do for a covert bird, because it kills the much bigger common pheasant. The silver pheasant belongs to another genus, and also is barred from the coverts in consequence of its greater superiority in fight than in flight.