Ebook: A monograph of the pheasants. Volume IV

London: Published under the auspices of the New York Zoological Society by Witherby & Co., 1922. - 484 p.
The study of the living pheasants in their natural environment in various parts of Eastern Asia — this was the main object of the seventeen months journey through Asia and the East Indies taken by the author of this monograph. The urgency of this journey sprang from the fact that the members of this most beautiful and remarkable group are rapidly becoming extinct, so that the record of their habits and surroundings, which is important to the understanding of their structure and evolution, will soon be lost for ever.
The literature of the group is already vast; innumerable papers and some monographs have been written, but to no naturalist hitherto has the opportunity been given to study nearly all of these birds in life. This opportunity came to William Beebe through the generosity of Colonel Anthony R. Kuser of Bernardsville, New Jersey, a member of the Board of Managers of the New York Zoological Society, and one of the benefactors of the Zoological Park. Having been interested for many years in developing his large collection of domesticated pheasants, it was he who suggested that a monograph of the entire family of these birds be undertaken, and who offered to support both the exploration and subsequent publication in a most complete manner, so as to produce a work which, from the standpoint of truth, of beauty and of thoroughness, should be worthy of the important place which the pheasants occupy in the science of ornithology.