Phasianus
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The genus Phasianus in the Pheasant family consists of at least one species, the Common Pheasant, P. colchicus, which has thirty recognised subspecies, twenty-nine on the Asian mainland and one on the island of Taiwan off the southern coast of China.
Both Phasianus and pheasant comes from the Greek word phāsiānos, meaning "(bird) of the Phasis" [1]. Phasis is the ancient name of the main river of western Georgia, currently called Rioni.
Some subspecies have been introduced to North America and hybridized, and have now become well established there.
The three forms on the Japanese islands are considered by some experts to be variants of a distinct species, the Green Pheasant, P. versicolor, but others consider the Japanese birds to be part of the Common Pheasant complex, making thirty-three subspecies in total.
