pheasant

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Any of various Old World birds of the family Phasianidae, especially the ring-necked pheasant introduced in North America, characteristically having long tails and, in the males of many species, brilliantly colored plumage.
2. n. Any of several other birds that resemble the pheasant, such as the partridge.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A bird of the genus Phasianus, family Phasianidæ. (See the technical names.) Phasianus colchicus, the bird originally called pheasant from its supposed origin, of which nothing is certainly known, and now for many centuries naturalized in Great Britain and in other parts of Europe. The cock bird in full plumage is nearly three feet long, of which length the tail is more than half. The head and neck are deep steel-blue, glancing greenish in some lights; and there is a bare red skin about the eyes. The general color is golden-brown, varying to chestnut or plain brown, on most parts intimately barred or laced with black. The hen is more yellowish-brown, and only about two thirds as long. This pheasant runs into some varieties in domestication, and also crosses freely with several related species. The several other forms of the restricted genus are definitely known as to their origin and habitat, all being natives of China and Tibet and more southerly regions of Asia, as well as of Japan and many other islands included in the Oriental fauna. Several of these are often seen in aviaries and in semi-domestication. They are such as Shaw's, P. shawi; the Mongolian, P. mongolicus; the Yarkand, P. insignis; the Formosan, P. formosanus; the ring-necked, P. torquatus; the Chinese ringless, P. decollatus; the Japanese green, P. versicolor; the green-backed golden, P. elegans; also pheasants known as Reeves's, Wallich's, Sömmering's, Swinhoe's, Elliot's, etc. Pheasants have often been introduced in the United States, where, however, none have been thoroughly naturalized, unless the cases of P. versicolor and P. sœmmeringi in Oregon should prove successful.
2. n. This name is popularly applied to a great variety of gallinaceous birds, including curassows, mound-builders, and francolins; and sometimes it is extended to other birds which in size or habits suggest the fowls. Such are the lyre-birds of Australia and the ground-cuckoos, Centropus.

Wiktionary

1. n. A bird of family Phasianidae, often hunted for food.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Zoöl.) Any one of numerous species of large gallinaceous birds of the genus Phasianus, and many other genera of the family Phasianidæ, found chiefly in Asia.
2. n. (Zoöl.), Southern U.S. The ruffed grouse.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. large long-tailed gallinaceous bird native to the Old World but introduced elsewhere
2. n. flesh of a pheasant; usually braised