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PHEASANT

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Originally appearing in Volume V21, Page 361 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PHEASANT (See also:

Mid. Eng. fesaunt and Salpingopharyngeal See also:fold Glands in soft See also:palate Anterior See also:palatine See also:arch Supratonsillar fossa Plica triangularis fesaun; Ger. fasan and anciently fasant; Fr. faisan—all from the See also:Lat. Phasianus or phasiana, sc. avis) , the See also:bird brought from the See also:banks of the See also:river Phasis, now the Rioni, in See also:Colchis, where it is still abundant, and introduced, according to See also:legend, by the See also:Argonauts into See also:Europe. Judging from the development of the ventral See also:part of the pharynx is dealt with in recognition of the remains of several See also:species referred to the genus the articles See also:TONGUE and See also:RESPIRATORY See also:SYSTEM. Phasianus both in See also:Greece and in See also:France,i it seems not impossible For literature see See also:Quain's Elements of See also:Anatomy, vol. i. (See also:London, r9o8), and J. P. McMurrich, Development of the Human See also:Body that the See also:ordinary pheasant, the P. colchicus of ornithclogists, (London, 1906). may have been indigenous to this See also:quarter of the globe. If it was See also:Comparative Anatomy.—In the See also:lower, See also:water-breathing, verte- introduced into See also:England, it must almost certainly have been brates the pharynx is the part in which respiration occurs. The brought by the See also:Romans;' for, setting aside several earlier records water passes in through the mouth and out through the gill slits of doubtful authority,' See also:Stubbs has shown that by the regulations where it comes in contact with the gills or branchiae. of See also:King Harold in 1059 onus phasianus is prescribed as the The lowest subphylum of the phylum Chordata, to which the See also:term Adelochorda is sometimes applied, contains a See also:worm-like creature See also:Balanoglossus, in which numerous rows of gill slits open from the pharynx, though Cephalodiscus, another member of the same subphylum, has only one pair of these. In the subphylum Urochorda, to which the Ascidians or See also:sea-squirts belong, there are many rows of gill slits, as there are also in the See also:Acrania, of which See also:Amphioxus, the lancelet, is the type. In all these lower forms there are no true gills, as the See also:blood-vessels lining the large number of slits provide a sufficient See also:area for the See also:exchange of gases.

In the See also:

Cyclostomata a reduction of the number of gill slits takes See also:place, and an increased area for respiration is provided by the gill pouches lined by pleated folds of entodermal mucous membrane; (From See also:Ambrose See also:Birmingham, See also:Cunningham's See also:Text See also:Book of Anatomy.) Sagittal See also:Section through Mouth, Tongue, Larynx, Pharynx and Nasal Cavity. The section is slightly oblique, and the posterior edge of the nasal septum has been pre-served. The specimen is viewed slightly from below, hence in part the See also:low position of the inferior turbinated See also:bone. 1 These are P. archiaci from Pikermi, P. altus and P. medius from the lacustrine beds of Sansan, and P. desnoyersi from See also:Touraine, see A. Milne See also:Edwards, Ois. See also:foss. de la France (ii. 229, 239-243). 2 Undoubted remains have been found in excavations at See also:Silchester. s Among these perhaps that worthy of most See also:attention is in Probert's See also:translation of The See also:Ancient See also:Laws of See also:Cambria (ed. 1823, pp. 367, 368), wherein extracts are given from Welsh triads, presumably of the See also:age of Howel the See also:Good, who died in 948. One of them is, " There are three See also:barking hunts: a See also:bear, a See also:squirrel and a pheasant." The explanation is, " A pheasant is called a barking See also:hunt, because when the pointers come upon it and See also:chase it, it takes to a See also:tree, where it is hunted by baiting." The See also:present writer has not been able to trace the See also:manuscript containing these remarkable alternative of two partridges or other birds among the " pitantiae" (rations or See also:commons, as we might now say) of the canons of See also:Waltham See also:Abbey, and, as W. B.

See also:

Dawkins has remarked (See also:Ibis, 1869, p. 358), neither Anglo-See also:Saxons nor Danes were likely to have introduced it into England. It seems to have been See also:early under legal See also:protection, for, according to See also:Dugdale, a See also:licence was granted in the reign of See also:Henry I. to the See also:abbot of See also:Amesbury to kill See also:hares and pheasants, and from the See also:price at which the latter are reckoned in various documents, we may conclude that they were not very abundant for some centuries, and also that they were occasion-ally artificially reared and fattened, as appears from Upton,' who wrote about the See also:middle of the 15th See also:century, while Henry VIII. seems from his privy See also:purse expenses to have had in his See also:household in 1532 a See also:French See also:priest as a See also:regular " fesaunt breder," and in the accounts of the Kytsons of Hengrave in See also:Suffolk for 1607 mention is made of See also:wheat to feed pheasants, partridges and quails. The practice of bringing up pheasants by See also:hand is now extensively followed, and the See also:numbers so reared vastly exceed those that are bred at large. The eggs are collected from birds that are either See also:running See also:wild or kept in pens, and are placed under domestic hens; but, though these prove most attentive See also:foster-mothers, much additional care on the part of their keepers is needed to ensure the arrival at maturity of the poults; for, being necessarily crowded in a comparatively small space, they are subject to several diseases which often carry off a large proportion, to say nothing of the See also:risk they run by not being provided with proper See also:food, or by See also:meeting an early See also:death from various predatory animals attracted by the assemblage of so many helpless victims. As they advance in age the See also:young pheasants readily take to a wild See also:life, and indeed can only be kept from wandering in every direction by being plentifully supplied with food, which has to be scattered for them in the coverts in which it is desired that they should stay. The See also:pro-portion of pheasants artificially bred that " come to the See also:gun " would seem to vary enormously, not only irregularly according to the See also:weather, but regularly according to the See also:district. ' In the eastern counties of England, and some other favourable localities, perhaps three-fourths of those that are hatched may be satisfactorily accounted for; but in many of the western counties, though they are the See also:objects of equal or even greater care, it would seem that more than See also:half of the number that live to grow their feathers disappear inexplicably before the coverts are beaten.

End of Article: PHEASANT

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