Pheasant Hunting

 

This species was first scientifically described by Linnaeus in his Systema naturae in 1758 under its current scientific name. Thecommon pheasant is distinct enough from any other species knownto Linnaeus for a laconic [Phasianus] rufus, capîte caeruleo – "a redpheasant with blue head" – to serve as entirely sufficient description. Moreover, the bird had been extensively discussed before Linnaeus established binomial nomenclature . His sources are the Ornithologia of Ulisse Aldrovandi , Giovanni Pietro Olina 's Uccelliera ,  John Ray 's Synopsis methodica Avium & Piscium , and A natural history of the birds by Eleazar Albin .  Therein—essentially the bulk of the ornithology textbooks of his day—the species is simply named "the pheasant" in the books' respective languages. Whereas in other species, such as the eastern meadowlark ( Sturnella magna), Linnaeus felt it warranted to cite plumage details from his sources, in the common pheasant's case he simply referred to the reason of thebird's fame: principum mensis dicatur. The type locality is given simply as "Africa, Asia". However, the bird does not occur in Africa, except perhaps in Linnaeus' time in Mediterranean coastal areas where they might have been introduced during the Roman Empire . The type locality was later fixed to the Rioni River in Western Georgia – known as Phasis to the Ancient Greeks – where the westernmost population occurs. These birds, until the modern era , constituted the bulk of the introduced stock in Europe; the birds described by Linnaeus' sources, though typically belonging to such early introductions, would certainly have more alleles in common with the transcaucasian population than with others. The scientific name is Latin for "pheasant from Colchis ", colchicus referring to the west of modern-day Georgia; the Ancient Greek term corresponding to the English "pheasant" is Phasianos ornis (Φασιανὸς ὂρνις), "bird of the river Phasis".

Although Linnaeus included many Galliformes in his genus Phasianius—such as the domestic chicken and its wild ancestor the red junglefowl , nowadays Gallus gallus —today only the common and the green pheasant are placed in this genus. As the latter was not known to Linnaeus in 1758, the common pheasant is naturally the type species of Phasianus.

In the USA, common pheasants are widely known as "ring-necked pheasants". More colloquial North American names include "chinks" or, in Montana, "phezzens" . In China, meanwhile, the species is properly called zhi ji ( 雉鸡 )—"pheasant-fowl"—essentially implying the same as the English name "common pheasant". Like elsewhere, P. colchicus is such a familiar bird in China that it is usually just referred to as shan ji (山雞), "mountain chicken",  a Chinese term for pheasants in general.As of 2005, it had the smallest known genome of all living amniotes, only 0.97 pg (970 million base pairs ); however, the black-chinned hummingbird is now currently held to have the smallest. The common pheasant ( Phasianus colchicus) is a bird in the pheasant family ( Phasianidae ). It is native to Asia and has been
widely introduced elsewhere as a game bird . In parts of its range, namely in places where none of its relatives occur such as in Europe (where it is naturalized), it is simply known as the "pheasant ". Ring- necked pheasant is both the name used for the species as a whole in
North America and also the collective name for a number of subspecies and their intergrades which have white neck rings.
 

 The word pheasant is derived from the ancient town of Phasis , the predecessor of the modern port city of Poti in Western Georgia. It is a well-known gamebird , among those of more than regional importance perhaps the most widespread and ancient one in the whole world. The common pheasant is one of the world's most hunted birds; it has been introduced for that purpose to many regions, and is also common on game farms where it is commercially
bred. Ring-necked pheasants in particular are commonly bred and were introduced to many parts of the world; the game farm stock, though no distinct breeds have been developed yet, can be considered semi- domesticated. The ring-necked pheasant is the state bird of South Dakota, one of only three U.S. state birds that is not a species native to the United States.

The green pheasant ( P. versicolor ) of Japan is sometimes considered a subspecies of the common pheasant. Though the species produce fertile hybrids wherever they coexist, this is simply a typical feature among fowl (Galloanseres), in which postzygotic isolating mechanisms are slight compared to most other birds. The species apparently have somewhat different ecological requirements and at least in its typical habitat, the green pheasant outcompetes the common pheasant. The introduction of the latter to Japan has
therefore largely failed.

There are many colour forms of the male common pheasant, rangingin colour from nearly white to almost black in some melanistic examples. These are due to captive breeding and hybridization between subspecies and with the green pheasant, reinforced by
continual releases of stock from varying sources to the wild. Forexample, the "ring-necked pheasants" common in Europe, North America and Australia do not pertain to any specific taxon, they rather represent a stereotyped hybrid swarm. [3] Body weight can range from 0.5 to 3 kg (1.1 to 6.6 lb), with males averaging 1.2 kg (2.6 lb) and females averaging 0.9 kg (2.0 lb).
The adult male common pheasant of the nominate subspecies Phasianus colchicus colchicus is 60–89 cm (24–35 in) in length with a long brown streaked black tail, accounting for almost 50 cm (20 in) of the total length. The body plumage is barred bright gold and brown plumage with green, purple and white markings. The head is bottle green with a small crest and distinctive red wattle . P. c. colchicus and some other races lack a white neck ring. The female (hen) is much less showy, with a duller mottled brownplumage all over and measuring 50–63 cm (20–25 in) long including a tail of around 20 cm (7.9 in). Juvenile birds have the appearance of
the female with a shorter tail until young males begin to grow characteristic bright feathers on the breast, head and back at about 10 weeks after hatching.
 

The green pheasant ( P. versicolor ) is very similar, and hybridization often makes the identity of individual birds difficult to determine. Green pheasant males on average have a shorter tail than the common pheasant and have darker plumage that is uniformly bottle-
green on the breast and belly; they always lack a neck ring. Green pheasant females are darker, with many black dots on the breast and belly.

In addition, various color mutations are commonly encountered,mainly melanistic (black) and flavistic ( isabelline or fawn ) specimens. The former are rather common in some areas and are named Tenebrosus pheasant.