Phasianus

The "typical" pheasant genus Phasianus in the family Phasianidae consists of two species. The genus name is Latin for pheasant.

==Taxonomy== The genus Phasianus was introduced in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. The genus name is Latin for "pheasant" deriving from Ancient Greek φἀσιἀνος, phāsiānos, meaning "(bird) of the Phasis", Phasis being the old name for the Rioni flowing downstream the east Colchian coast of the Black Sea (now western Georgia), where Argonauts set foot on its banks and found such birds there. The type species of the genus is the common pheasant (Phasianus colchicus).