Introduction

Among the nearly 9,000 bird species that are said to inhabit the earth, India is blessed with nearly 1200 species. This means that nearly one-sixth of the world’s total avian diversity is found in a country that is only about one-fiftieth of the world’s total land mass.an>

The rich diversity of birdlife in the country is best exemplified by the Indian Pheasants, which include some of the most gorgeously beautiful and spectacular birds of the world.

Pheasants are associated with mankind since times immemorial and have proved themselves important to humankind. Pheasants occur in almost all habitats, be it the Himalayas or the Indian Plains.

Pheasants world belong to the order Galliformes and family Phasianidae. The Galliformes are essentially what we know as ‘game birds’. Apart from pheasants, the group also includes partridges, quails, grouses, francolins and turkeys as well as the lesser known megapodes and curassows. Altogether, there are 51 different species of pheasants worldwide. All of these, except one- i.e. the Congo Peafowl - are from Asia. It seems that all pheasants originated in the Himalayas and then radiated into Tibet, China, Burma and other countries of south and Southeast Asia as well as the Caucasus Mountains. Within India, only the jungle fowl and the peafowl expanded into south India and Sri LPheasants form one of the most conspicuous groups of birds, mainly on account of their large size and colourful plumage. The criteria for distinguishing a pheasant area not very well defined. They form a loosely bound group of birds showing marked sexual dimorphism in most cases. The males are relatively larger in size, usually with more ornate plumage than the females. All the pheasants live on the ground and since they are hunted for both, sport and the pot, have dwindled in numbers.

The ecological degradation in the Himalaya has put a severe pressure on the pheasants inhabiting it, which has jeopardized their very existence. Most pheasant species are sensitive to habitat changes and have been rightly called indicator species , whose disappearance is often the first and most alarming sign of the degradation of an ecosystem.

Galliform Taxonomy
		Due to an apparent complexity in the interrelationships amongst the group, galliform taxonomy has been rather controversial. Beebe (1914) was the first to attempt the classification of Galliformes and based his classification on the moulting pattern in the tail feathers. He recognised two sub families
		1.	The old world sub-family Perdicinae (on the basis of their centrifugal pattern of rectrix moulting, where moulting invariably begins with the central rectrices and proceeds regularly outwards)
		2.	The typical pheasant sub-family Phasianinae (with centripetal tail moulting, from the outermost rectrices inwardly).
		However, Beebe excluded two, now recognised, genra Ithaginis and Tragopan, from Phasianinae and included them in the sub-family Perdicinae, since these two had a centrifugal pattern of tail moulting. He further observed that in Afropavo, tail moulting began with the second rectrix from outermost, with the outermost pair moulting just prior to the inner ones. Beebe called this group Pavoninae. He also recognised another group, Argusininae, consisting of peacock pheasants Polyplectron and Argus pheasants Argusianus again, based on irregular tail moulting patterns (beginning with the third from central pair, proceeding both outwardly and inwardly simultaneously, with the central rectrices being replaced just prior to the outermost pair).
		Verheyen (1956) presented a new classification based on his osteological studies of galliformes. Within the family Phasianidae, he recognised seven sub-divisions namely: -
		Numidinae Afropavoninae Melagrininae Tetraoninae Phasianinae Perdicinae Pavoninae			(Guinea fowls) (Congo peafowl) (Turkeys) (Grouse) (Pheasants) (Partridges & Quails) (Peacocks)

		Some authors (Johnsgard, 1986) have questioned his exclusion of Afropavoninae from the true pheasants (Phasisninae). Sibley and Ahlquist (1972) used electrophoretic studies of egg white to distinguish typical pheasants from the old world partridges. They, however, concluded that since variations in protein mobility made taxonomic interpretation difficult with in the family Phasianidae, additional studies were required to establish relationships amongst the genera of these groups. In 1973, Johnsgard reviewed the taxonomy of Galliformes and introduced two superfamilies Cracoidea and Phasinoidea. Most authors (Delacour, 1977; Johnsgard, 1986) recognise 49 pheasant species present in the world today, with only 16 genera (Delacour, 1977).
		Table 1.1 showing some suggested classifications of Galliformes (From Johnsgard, 1986)
		Peters 1934	Mayr and Amadon 1951	Verheyen 1956	Wetmore 1960	Johnsgard 1973
		Megapodiidae Cracidae Tetraonidae Phasianidae Odontophorniae Phasianinae Numididae Meleagrididae Odontophorini Coturnicini Perdicini Phasianinae Pavoninae	Megapodiidae Cracidae Phasianidae Phasianinae Numidinae Tetraoninae Meleagrididae	Megapodiidae Cracidiae Phasianidae Numidiinae Afropavinae Melegrininae Tetraonidae Perdicinae Phasianinae Perdicini Phasianini Numidinae	Superfamily Craoidea Megapodidae Cracidae Superfamily Phasianoidea Tetraonidae Phasiandae Numididae Meleagrididae	Superfamily Cracoidea Megeapodidae Cracidae Superfamily Phasianoidea Phasianidae Melegrinidae Tetraoninae Odontophorinae
	Total	families -------6	---------4	---------3	----------6	----------3
	Total	genera ------93	----------	----------	-----------	------------
	Total	species -----267	-------240	----------	--------245	------------

		National pride
		The Blue Peafowl, rightly known as the Indian Peafowl, is India’s National Bird. Some other states which have pheasants as state birds are:
		Bird			State
		Peacock Himalayan monal Blyth’s Tragopan Blood Pheasant Hume’s Pheasant			Orissa Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal. Nagaland Sikkim Manipur and Mizoram
		No other single group of birds can claim this high level of state recognition anywhere in the world. In a sense, the Indian Pheasants deserve to be called the National Birds of India.