ZOOLOGY LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

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[EASANTS

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3 1761 03659502 3

ASANT REARING

W. B, TEGETMEIER ~

SIXTH EDITION (REVISED)

PHEASANTS

Their Natural History and Practical Management.

Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2010 with funding from
University of Toronto

http://www.archive.org/details/pheasantstheirn00tege

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PHEASANTS

Their Natural Hstory
& Practical Management

By W. B. TEGETMEIER

EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION
By ERIC PARKER

WITH A CHAPTER ON THE DISEASES OF
PHEASANTS BY H. HAMMOND SMITH,
AND ILLUSTRATIONS BY J. G. MILLAIS,
i W.. WOOD, AND +. W. FPROHAWK.

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Contents.

NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PHEASANT.

CHAPTER I.
Habits, Food, Structure, &c.

Cuapter II.
History, Distribution, &c. .

MANAGEMENT IN PRESERVES.
CHaprer III.

Formation of Coverts ..

CHAPTER IV.
Feeding in Coverts

CHaptTer V.
Rearing and Protection

MANAGEMENT IN CONFINEMENT.

CHaprer VI.
Formation of Pens and Aviaries

Cuapter VII.
Laying and Hatching ..

CuapTer VIII.
Rearing the Young Birds ..

page 1

24

45

55

62

119

vi Contents.

DISEASES OF PHEASANTS.

CHapTeR IX.
By H. Hammonp Smiru.
Tuberculosis, Pneumonia, Roup, Enteritis, Coccidiosis,
1 mM

PHEASANTS ADAPTED TO THE COVERT.

CHAPTER X.
The Common Pheasant on eae bs ie a, eee

CHAPTER XI.
The Chinese Pheasant 0 ttle poveged pes ee

CHapTerR XII.

The Japanese Pheasant =. .. =. =. 2. == .==uneee

CHAPTER XIII.

The Mongolian Pheasant .. .. .. .. <= Gouna
CuarPTER XIV.

Reeves’s Pheasant es) Bie nee” Baw oe Le rn
CHapPTER XY.

The Sungarian Pheasanf .. ./ -. =. +. ==) .==e

CuHapterR XVI.
The Prince of Wales’s Pheasant «> usd.? Dolla en

CuapTER XVII.
Soommerring’s Pheasant .. <. «s/o! So) eee

PHEASANTS ADAPTED TO THE AVIARY.

Contents.

CuapTterR XVIII.

The Golden Pheasant ..

CHAPTER XIX.

The Amherst Pheasant

The Silver Pheasant

The Eared Pheasant

CHAPTER XX.

CHAPTER XXI.

CHAPTER XXII.

The Impeyan Pheasant

The Argus Pheasant

CHAPTER XXIII.

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Illustrations.

Mongolian Pheasant (P. mongolicus) .. «. Frontispiece
Coop on Elevated Platform .. .. .. Facing page 134
Common Pheasant (P. colchicus) BN ocicegnes a 167
Chinese Pheasant (P. torquatus) 176
Feathers of Chinese and Mongolian Pheasants 178
Japanese Pheasant (P. versicolor) 182
Feathers of Hybrid Pheasants .. 184
Reeves’s Pheasant (P. reevesit) .. 195
Reeves’s Pheasant in Flight : 200
Bohemian Pheasant (P. colchicus—variety) ) 0
Hybrid Pheasant (Reeves’s and Bohemian) ) cae
Sungarian Pheasant (P. alpherakyt) 208
Prince of Wales’s Pheasant (P. principalis) .. 210
Scemmerring’s Pheasant (P. semmerringit) 215
Golden Pheasant (Thauwmalea picta) .. 222
Amherst Pheasant (Thaumalea amherstiv) .. $ 232
Silver Pheasant (Euplocamus nycthemerus) 239

Eared Pheasant (Crossoptilon manchuricum) ..

Impeyan Pheasant (Lophophorus impeyanus).. 45
Argus Pheasant (Argus giganteus) .. .. .. ;
The Argus Pheasant displaying its Plumage.. 3

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INTRODUCTION.

By Eric ParkeEr.

Eleven years have passed since. the publication of the last
edition of this book, which has long been the standard work
on its subject, and during this period much has happened

to alter the conditions of pheasant-shooting. But the
change is in reality only part of a long development
spreading from a much earlier date. When the late

W. B. Tegetmeier first set out to bring into the compass of
a single book the accumulated experience of himself and of
others in the matter of rearing pheasants in covert and in
confinement, the science necessary for conducting a day’s
shooting, as the sequence to a season’s breeding and feeding,
was very little understood. On many estates birds were
being shot very much as in the days of Peter Hawker, who,
if he caught sight of a cock pheasant in the Longparish woods,
would turn out the staff of garden and farm to put the bird
on the wing. Wild birds were the rule rather than the excep-
tion; the First of October was a day to be looked forward
to, like the First of September ; and if a pair of spaniels could
bustle a bird out of a spinney or a hedgerow it was enough
if he could be made to fly—there was no thought that he should
fly better. Even on estates where birds were bred and put
into the woods no care was taken to beat them out, except
in the most haphazard, straightforward fashion, when it came

xil Tegetmeier on Pheasants.

to shooting ; the consequence was that the birds flew low,
anyhow and anywhere, and, indeed, the more there were the
worse was the shooting, for they would get up in bunches
and fly at a level with the heads of the guns. It was a happy-
go-lucky business, asking for little skill from gun or game-
keeper ; and it did not even properly fulfil the first purpose
of shooting, that of fillmg the larder, for birds which flew so
low often were shot at too near, and so were spoiled for the
table.

Then came a change. It was realised that the pheasant
was not only a bird for the kitchen, but could use his wings ;
that he was. indeed, one of the finest and fastest of fliers
among british game birds. And it was discovered that there
were certain conditions under which he would fly and others
under which he would not. You could not make him fly
away from home. If he had become accustomed to being
fed or finding his food in a particular covert or part of a covert,
he might be driven away from it, but he would only go relue-
tantly ; he would run away from it, or would fly a short
distance near the ground, but he would not take’a high and
prolonged flight. Why should he? For his natural idea
would be to get back there as soon as possible.

That was the first discovery. And the second came with it ;
that if he had by some means been induced to leave his home,
and then were made to fly while still at a distance from it,
he would rise high in the air and fly back, crossing woods and
valleys in his purpose to find himself home again without
loss of time. So that those who planned a day’s shooting
schemed first to get their birds accustomed to regard a par-
ticular spot, carefully chosen, as ““ home”; then, on the day,
of shooting, quietly “‘ pushed ” or “‘ walked ” or “ shepherded ”’
them away from home, to a distance, it might be, of several
hundred yards ; they stopped them there by a line of beaters
or a string of coloured strips of cloth ; and they then arranged
for keepers or beaters to flush the birds where they were,
so that they should fly home. Before they got home, flying

Editor’s Introduction. xill

high in the air, swerving, crossing, swinging down wind, they
would pass over the line of guns; and that process provided
the finest and most exacting test of a man’s skill with his
weapon. Driven grouse with a gale of wind behind them,
driven partridges late in the season, twisting as they top the
fence, make hard shooting ; but there is nothing more difficult
than a pheasant curling at his top speed over the roof of the
trees.

It had been discovered, then, how to make the home-
bred bird supply first-class shooting. That was to the good ;
but, unfortunately, as it happens with good things, it was
overdone. ‘Twenty, thirty, a hundred good birds at a stand
were thought not enough; the numbers became multiplied
by ten. Bags went into four figures. Five figures almost
were needed to count the birds brought up and put into the
woods ; and almost because of those figures, the thing came
even to a kind of disrepute. Not that the shooting became
less difficult, but that there was too much of it. A man could
come home at the end of a big day, and be puzzled to remember
a dozen shots out of the hundreds he had fired. That was
less sport than mechanism, and already, at the height of what
may be called, perhaps, the pheasant era, which culminated
in the vears before the European war, men were beginning
to turn from the “set piece” of pheasant-shooting to the
wilder, happier sport of the snipe-marsh and the saltings.

Then came the war and stopped all pheasant-rearing ;
stopped pheasant-shooting as we knew it. Those who stayed
at home shot for the larder or the hospitals ; shot at birds
beaten out anyhow. And an unexpected thing happened,
for it had been prophesied that the stock of birds, without
the new blood of the rearing-field to augment it, would die
out. Instead, it multiplied. Wild pheasants learnt not only
how to elude the gun but how to escape from their enemies.
Even with English woods and fields filled fuller than any
gamekeeper within living memory had seen them with foxes,
stoats, weasels, magpies, and jays, the wild pheasant brought

X1V Tegetmeier on Pheasants.

her brood from the covert to the cornfield and the hedgerow.
And she disproved, perhaps put an end to, an ancient heresy.
One after another in the gunroom, and one after another in
book and newspaper, talkers and writers had repeated the
shibboleth that the wild pheasant was a bad mother. There
were a hundred observed facts at their elbow to disprove
it had they looked for them—hen pheasants sitting on eggs
through deluges of rain, lifted nest and all from danger to
safety perhaps on a farm fork; hen pheasants attacking
stoats, dogs, men in defence of their young; hen pheasants
and their broods surviving among countless enemies from the
days of the Romans to our own. But the war, even to the
blindest who would not see, proved that the hen pheasant
is as good a mother as other birds. And when the war ended
wild hen pheasants all over the country had provided a stock
with which we could, if we wished, reconstruct the sport of
covert-shooting.

And once again the pendulum swung to the other extreme.
Nobody seemed to want to rear pheasants. Some, who knew
best how it should be done, could not afford it ; others, who
had the means, did not know what to do with them. And a
third class decided to go on with only wild birds. They may
even have tried to persuade themselves that wild birds made
better sport ; but they confused good sport, I think, a little
with poor shooting. For the wild bird, except under rare
conditions, does not give good shooting ; it may be good fun
to find him, and to add him to a mixed bag, but it is impossible
to enjoy lifting a gun at a pheasant which gets up at your
feet out of a bramble-bush and fhes straight away a couple
of yards above the ground. And the war, one may believe,
had even taught wild pheasants how to hide or run rather
than to fly, so that they became as poor marks as the
hungriest pot-hunter could pray for. We came, in short,
after two or three seasons, back to the beginning again, with
the same kind of pheasant to shoot at that Hawker chased
with Hodge.

Editor’s Introduction. XV

Now, I believe, there is yet another change—perhaps
because some of those who know what pheasant-shooting
can be have decided that a thing was not necessarily
bad because some people overdid it. Pheasant-rearing
has begun again, and I think with justification. For if
pheasant-shooting is worth having at all, it is worth doing
the business of it well. If it is true, as I think it is,
that pheasants can be placed and reared and shot on ground
where other birds cannot, if they can be fed largely on the
natural fruit that our English woods provide, supplemented
by enough other food to keep them at home and out of the
farmer’s fields till the corn is cut; if itis a good thing to
provide healthy out-of-doors employment for a large body
of men; if, in addition, it is granted that pheasants provide
an excellent form of food which can be cheaply produced
and put on the market to cheapen by competition the prices
of table poultry ; if all this is true, why, then, let us have
pheasant-shooting on a moderate scale for moderate men to
enjoy. ‘That means rearing pheasants ; and it is to those who
wish to rear them economically and in the light of the
experience of others that this new edition of ‘ Tegetmeier on
Pheasants ’’ is addressed. Eric PARKER.

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Pheasants for
Coverts and Aviaries.

CHAPTER I.

Natural History of the Pheasants.
Structure, Food, and Habits.

HE pheasants, properly so called (as distinguished

from the allied but perfectly distinct genera which

include the Gold and Silver pheasants, the Kaleege, the
Monaul, etc.), constitute the genus or group known to
naturalists under the title Phasianus. Of the true pheasants
no fewer than thirteen distinct species have been described
by Mr. D. G. Elhott, in his splendid foho monograph on the
Phasiande. Of these several are known only by rare
specimens of the skims brought from little explored Asiatic
countries, and others cannot be regarded as anything more
than mere local or geographical varieties of well-known
species. Since the publication of Elliott’s Phasianide
several additional species have been described.

Mr. Ogilvie-Grant in his valuable ‘‘ Handbook on Game
Birds” published in Allen’s “ Natural History ” enumerates
as many as eighteen species of true pheasants belonging to
the genus Phasianus, of which he takes the common species,
Phasianus colchicus, as the type, and additional species have
since been described by Mr. H. E. Dresser, in the Ibis, the

B

2 Natural History.

‘Hon. Walter Rothschild, in the Bulletin of the British
Ornithologists’ Club, and by Mr. Beebe, in his ‘“ Monograph
of the Pheasants.”

Without including, however, such birds as have, from
their rarity or other causes, no practical interest to English
game preservers, there remain several well-known species
that will require our careful consideration. Such are: The
common pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), now generally diffused
throughout southern and central Hurope; the Chinese
(P. torquatus) ; the Mongolian (P. Mongolicus) ; the Japanese
(P. versicolor) ; and Reeves’s pheasant (P. reevesw). These,
however, are so closely related in structure, form, and habits,
that their natural history and general management may be
given once for all, and their distinctive peculiarities pointed
out subsequently.

The pheasants constituting the genus Phasianus are
readily distinguished by their tail feathers, which are eighteen
in number, the middle pair being much the longest, and these
attain their maximum development in the Reeves pheasant,
reaching in that species to a length exceeding five or six feet.
They are all destitute of feathered crests or fleshy combs, but
are furnished with small tufts of feathers behind the eyes.
In their native state they are essentially forest birds, fre-
quenting the margins of wood, coming into the open tracts
in search of food, and retreating into the thick underwood at
the shghtest cause for alarm. ‘The common pheasant, which
has been introduced from its native country, Asia Minor, for
upwards of a thousand years, though spread over the greater
part of Europe, and more recently introduced into North
America, Australia, and New Zealand, still retains its
primitive habits.

“Tt is,” says Naumann, in his work on the “ Birds of
Germany,” “certainly a forest bird, but not in the truest
sense of the term; for neither does it inhabit the densely
wooded districts, nor the depths of the mixed forest, unless
driven to do so. Small pieces of grove, where deep under-

An Omnivorous Feeder. 3

bush and high grass grow between the trees, where thorn
hedges, berry-growing bushes, and water overgrown with
reeds, and here and there pastures and fields are found, are
its chosen places of abode. Nor must well-cultivated and
grain-growing fields be wanting where this bird is to do well.
It neither likes the bleak mountain country nor dry sandy
places ; nor does it frequent the pine woods unless for protec-
tion against its enemies, or during bad weather, or at might.”

“In our own country,’ says Maegillivray, “its favourite
places of resort are thick plantations, or tangled woods by
streams, where, among the long grass, brambles, and other
shrubs, it passes the night, sleeping on the ground in summer
and autumn, but commonly roosting in the trees in winter.”

Like the domestic fowl, which it closely resembles in its
internal structure and its habits, the pheasant is an omni-
vorous feeder; grain, herbage, roots of the wood anemone,
berries, and other small fruits, worms, small field slugs,
insects, acorns, beech-mast, are alike acceptable to it.
Naumann gives the followimg detailed description of its
dietary on the Continent: “Its food consists of grain,
seeds, fruits, and berries, with green herbs, insects, and
worms, varying with the time of year. Ants, and particu-
larly their larve, are a favourite food, the latter forming the
chief support of the young. It also eats many green weeds,
the tender shoots of grass, cabbage, young clover, wild
cress, pimpernel, young peas, etc. Of berries: the wild
mezereum (Daphne mezereum), wild strawberries (fragaria),
currants, elderberries from the species Sambucus racemosa,
S. nigra, and S. ebulus ; blackberries (Rubus ceesius, R. idaus,
and R. fructicosus); mistletoe (Viscum album) ; hawthorn
(Crategus torminalis). Plums, apples, and pears it eats
readily, and cherries, mulberries, and grapes it also takes
when it can get them. In the autumn ripe seeds are its chief
food, it eats those of many of the sedges and grasses, and
of several species of Polygonum, as P. dumetorum ; black

bindweed (P. convolvulus) ; knot grass (P. aviculare) ; and
B 2

A Natural History.

also those of the cow-wheat (Melampyrum) ; and acorns,
beech-mast, etc., form a large portion of its food in the latter
months of the year. Amongst forest plants it likes the seeds
of the hemp-nettle (Galeopsis), and it also feeds on almost all
the seeds that the farmer sows.”

To this long catalogue of its continental fare may be
added the roots of the silver weed (Potentilla anserina), and
those of the pig-nut or earth-nut (Bunium flexuosum), and the
tubers of the common buttereups (Ranunculus bulbosus and
R. ficaria), which are often scratched out of the soil and eaten.
Macgillivray states that ‘“‘ One of the most remarkable facts
relative to this bird that has come under my observation was
the presence of a very large quantity of the fronds of the
common polypody (Polypodium vulgare) in the crop of one
which I opened in the winter of 1835. I am not aware that
any species of fern has ever been found constituting part of
the food of a ruminating quadruped or gallinaceous bird ; and
if it should be found by experiment that the pheasant
thrives on such substances, advantage might be taken of the
circumstance.” Macgillivray, however, wrote before the
publication of the Report of the Grouse Disease Inquiry Com-
mittee, in which (pp. 85 and 91 of “ The Grouse in Health
and in Disease’’) it is stated that grouse will feed on the
fronds of bracken. Mr. W. E. Downing, in a letter written
in 1922, remarks that on a moor in Cheshire where there is
little heather he opened the crops of grouse and found them
filled with bracken.

Thompson in his ‘* Natural History of Ireland” recounts
the different varieties of food he observed in opening the
crops of ten pheasants—from November to April inclusive.
In seven he discovered the fruit of the hawthorn, with grain,
small seeds, and peas. In one no less than thirty-seven
acorns. Another had its crop nearly filled with grass; only
one contained any insects, the period of examination bemg
the colder months of the year; in summer the pheasant is
decidedly insectivorous ; all contained numerous fragments

~

Hazel Nuts and Spangles. 5

of stone. He also records that in the spring the yellow
flowers of the pilewort (Ranunculus ficaria) are always eaten
in large quantity, as are the tuberous roots of the common
silver weed (Potentilla anserina), when they are turned up by
cultivation. Mr. Thompson adds: ‘“ While spending the
month of January, 1849, at the sporting quarters of
Ardimersy Cottage, Island of Islay, where pheasants are
abundant and attam a very large size—the ring-necked
variety, too, being common—lI observed that these birds, in
the outer or wilder coverts, feed, during mild as well as
severe weather, almost wholly on hazel nuts. In the first
bird that was remarked to contain them, they were reckoned,
and found to be twenty-four in number, all of full size and
perfect ; in addition were many large insect larve. Hither
oats or Indian corn being thrown out every morning before
the windows of the cottage for pheasants, I had an oppor-
tunity of observing their great preference of the former to
the latter. I remarked a pheasant one day in Islay taking
the sparrow's place, by picking at horsedung on the road for
undigested oats.”’

Among the more singular articles of food that form part
of the pheasant’s very varied dietary may be mentioned the
spangles of the oak so common in the autumn on the under
sides of the leaves. These galls are caused by the presence
of the eggs of a gall-fly (Neuroterus lenticularis), which may
be reared from the spangles if they are collected in the
autumn, and kept in a cool and rather moist atmosphere
during the winter. About the fall of the leaf these spangles
begin to lose their flat mushroom-like form and red hirsute
appearance, and become by degrees raised or bossed towards
the middle, in consequence of the growth of the enclosed
grub, which now becomes visible when the spangle is cut
open. The perfect insect makes its appearance in April and
May. Some years since, Mr. R. Carr Ellison published the
following account of their being eagerly sought and devoured
by pheasants in a wild state: “ Just before the fall of the

(5 Natural History.

oak-leaf these spangles (or the greater part of them) become
detached from it, and are scattered upon the ground under
the trees in great profusion. Our pheasants delight in picking
them up, especially from the surface of walks and roads,
where they are most easily found. But as they are quite
visible even to human eyes, among the wet but undecayed
leaves beneath the oaks, wherever pheasants have been turning
them up, a store of winter food is evidently provided by
these minute and dormant insects with their vegetable incase-
ment, in addition to the earth-worms, slugs, ete., which
induce the pheasants to forage so industriously, by scratching
up the layers of damp leaves in incipient decay which cover
the woodland soil in winter. Not only have we found the
spangles plentifully in the crops of pheasants that have been
shot, but, on presenting leaves covered with them to the
common and to the gold pheasants in confinement, we observed
the birds to pick them up without a moment's hesitation,
and to look eagerly for more.”

The value of pheasants to the agriculturist is scarcely
sufficiently appreciated ; the birds destroy enormous numbers
of injurious insects—among them wireworms and the grubs
of the Bibionide, which travel in clusters devouring the roots
of grasses and cereals, and are picked up by pheasants hundreds
at a time. Several instances of these large numbers of
Bibionide having been devoured by pheasants have been
recorded in the Field. From the crop of one pheasant over
1200 grubs have been taken; from another, 726 grubs, one
acorn, one snail, nine berries, and three grains of wheat—
which would indicate a distinct preference for insect food
over cereals ; and the contents of a third crop, consisting of
more than 600 grubs of Bibionide, removed by Dr. Hammond
Smith, may be seen in the Central Hall of the Natural History
Museum in South Kensington. As another instance of their
insectivorous character may be mentioned the complaint of
Waterton, that they had extirpated the grasshoppers from
Walton Park. They also occasionally eat molluscous animals.

Slow-Worms: Vipers. 7

Mr. John Bishop, of Llandovery, killed a pheasant on the
coast of Islay whose crop was filled with the coloured snail’s
shells abounding on the bents or grass stems on the coast.
At the meeting of the British Ornithologists’ Club, October 21,
1896, I exhibited some snail shells (Helix nemoralis) of full size,
no fewer than forty-eight of which I had taken out of the crop
of a pheasant.

Lord Lilford, in his beautiful work on the “ Birds of
Northamptonshire,’ writes: “The pheasant, where not pre-
served in unreasonable numbers, is a good friend to the
farmer, from the enormous number of wireworms and other
noxious insects which it devours, to say nothing of its hking
for the roots of various weeds; but it would be absurd to
deny that grain forms its favourite food, and a field of standing
beans will, as is well known, draw pheasants for miles. It
is very much the fashion to feed the birds with maize; but
in our opinion the flesh of pheasants which have been prin-
cipally fed upon this corn is very far inferior in flavour to that
of those who have found their own living upon what the land
may offer them.”

Like their allies, the domestic fowls, pheasants are occa-
sionally carnivorous in their appetite. A correspondent
writes: “This morning my keeper brought me a pied cock
pheasant, found dead (but still warm) in some standing barley.
The bird was in the finest condition, and showed no marks
whatever, when plucked, of a violent death. On searching
the gullet I extracted a short-tailed field mouse, which had
doubtless caused death by strangulation.” And a similar
instance was recorded by Mr. Hutton, of Northallerton. The
Hon. and Rey. C. Bathurst, in a letter published in Loudon’s
Magazine of Natural History, vol. ., p. 158, relates that Sir
John Ogilvy saw a pheasant flying off with a common slow-
worm (Anguis fragilis) ; that this reptile does sometimes form
part of the food of the pheasant is confirmed by Mr. J. E.
Harting, who recounts in his work on “ The Birds of Middle-
sex,” that “on examining the crop of a pied pheasant, shot in

8 Natural History.

October, 1864, I was surprised to find in it a common slow-
worm (Anguis fragilis) which measured eight inches in length.
It was not quite perfect, having lost the tip of the tail ; other-
wise, if whole, it would probably have measured nine inches.”

In October, 1888, Mr. J. B. Footner, of Tunbridge Wells,
forwarded to me three young vipers that were found with
five others of equal size in the crop of a three parts grown
hen pheasant, which he himself shot as a wild bird. Their
length was slightly in excess of Tin., and the weight of the
largest was exactly }oz. They were evidently young of the
same brood. In his letter Mr. Footner recalled the fact that
Sir Kenelm Digby, who lived in the time of Charles I., and
married a lady of great beauty, used to feed his wife on
capons fattened on adders, which were believed to preserve
beauty. Sir Kenelm Digby, whose portrait may be seen in
Vandyke’s Iconography, was remarkable as a charlatan, who
proposed to cure wounds by applying a sympathetic powder
to the weapons they were caused by, and who published a
treatise ‘‘ Secrets pour la Beauté des Dames,” from which
the viper treatment is extracted.

Mr. G. F. Passmore, of Speranza, Exeter, writing in the
Field of June 2, 1900, states: “ An extraordinary fatality
occurred to one of my hen pheasants, confined with a number
of others in a large pen, at Lambert, Hatherleigh, North
Devon, on Sunday, November 27, between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m.
The pheasant, when found, had swallowed about 6in. of a
viper, whilst about 8in. of the tail part of the reptile was
protruding from the mouth of the bird. Both the bird and
viper were dead.”

The structure of the digestive organs of the pheasant is
perfectly adapted to the assimilation of the food on which it
feeds. The sharp edge of the upper mandible of the bull is
admirably fitted for cutting off portions of the vegetables on
which it partly subsists, and the whole organ is equally well
adapted for securing the various articles of its extensive
dietary. The food, when swallowed, passes into a very

Digestive Organs. 9

capacious membranous crop, situated under the skin at the
fore part of the breast. From this organ portions gradually
pass into the true digestive stomach, or proventiculus ; this is
a short tube, an inch and a half long, connecting the crop
with the gizzard. Small as this organ may be, it is one of
extreme importance, as the numerous small glands of which
it mainly consists secrete the acid digestive or gastric fluid
necessary to the digestion of the food ; and in cases in which
pheasants or fowls are fed on too great an abundance of
animal food, or any highly stimulating diet, this organ becomes
inflamed, and death is frequently the result. From the
proventiculus the food passes into the gizzard, which is lined
with a dense thick skin; in its cavity the food is ground
down to a pulp, the process being assisted by the presence of
the numerous small stones, fragments of flint and quartz, etc.,
swallowed by the bird. ‘The food, thus ground to a pulp,
passes on into the intestines, which are no less than six feet
in length ; in the upper part of this long canal it is mingled
with the bile formed in the liver, the pancreatic fluid, etc.,
and, as it passes from one extremity to the other, the nourish-
ment for the support of the animal is extracted ; this being
greatly aided by the operation of the two czxca, or blind
intestines, which are very large in all the birds of this group.

The flight of the pheasant is strong, and is performed by
rapid and frequent beats of the wing, the tail at the same
time being expanded. The force with which the bird flies
may be inferred from the result which has not infrequently
occurred when it has come into contact with thick plate-
glass in windows. Colonel Turbervill, writing from Kwenny
Priory, Glamorgan, in March, 1897, states: “ I was sitting in
our drawing-room, with a large plate-glass window about
two yards behind me, when I heard a loud crash, and a shower
of broken glass fell about me, one piece cutting my head.
On looking round I saw a large hole in the upper part of the
window, and a hen pheasant lying, nearly dead, between 3ft.
and 4ft. from the window inside the room. The plate glass

10 Natural History.

through which the pheasant flew is one-fifth of an inch thick,
and pieces of it were found on the carpet 14ft. from the
window.” A correspondent states: “ A few days ago a cock
pheasant rose about three hundred yards from my house
and flew against the centre of a plate-glass window, smashing
it into a thousand fragments. The glass was 3ft. 8in. by
3ft. 4in., and din. thick; and such was the force of the
concussion that not a single piece remained 6in. square.
As light snow on the ground rendered the window more than
usually a mirror reflecting the outer landscape. It 1s needless
to add the bird was killed stantaneously. ‘Two hen pheasants
had on previous occasions been killed in the same way, but
the glass was not damaged.” Mr. G. A. Hackett, of Pailton
House, Rugby, also wrote as follows : “‘ I was much astonished
to-day, at about two o'clock, by hearing a loud crash of glass
in my smoking-room, and on going there I found a cock
pheasant dead on the floor close to the window, and the plate
of glass, which is 4ft. by 3ft. 6in., and din. thick, in thousands
of fragments. I am certain no blow from a man could have
in like manner demolished the glass. The pheasant was a
ring-necked, last year’s bird, and weighed nearly 3lb.” These
instances occurred in the daytime. Sometimes the birds are
attracted by a light, as in the followimg cases: “ On a very
rough night in January, a hen pheasant flew through the
hall window at Methyr Manor, Bridgend, attracted by a
light inside.” And the following incident is related as
occurring in a village not far from Bangor, on the banks of a
river on the opposite side of which is a plantation well stocked
with pheasants : “ One stormy night there sat in a room of a
small public, which had a window facing the plantation, six
or seven men enjoying their pipes and beer, when all of a
sudden crash went the window, out went the candle, and
out rushed the men in great consternation. On examining the
room a splendid cock pheasant was found under the table.”
The wings, considered with reference to the size and
weight of the bird, are short and small; from the secondary

Powers of Flight. 11

quills being nearly as long as the primary, they are rounded
in form, the third and fourth primary feathers being the
longest. The comparatively small size of the wings necessi-
tates their bemg moved with great force and velocity, conse-
quently the moving powers or muscles of the breast are very
large and well developed, taking their origin from the deep
keel on the breast bone. The wings are not adapted to a very
prolonged flight, although the denizens of the wilder districts
in the country fly with a speed and cover distances that are
unknown to the over-fattened birds in our preserves. Long
flights are, however, not altogether beyond the powers of
the bird. One of unusual length was recorded by the late
Mr. J. Cordeaux, of Ulceby, who states that ‘“ when
shooting in the marshes on the Lincolnshire side of the
Humber, near Grimsby, a man who works on the sea embank-
ment came to say that two pheasants had just flown over from
the Yorkshire side, alighting within a few feet of where he
was working among the rough grass on the bank. On going
to the spot indicated, I at once found and shot them ; they
were both hens, and in very good condition. The Humber
at this place from shore to shore is nearly four miles across.
There was a strong northerly breeze blowing at the time, so
that they would cross before the wind, or with the wind a
little aslant. I have occasionally found pheasants in the
marshes, and near the embankment, which I was sure must
have come across, but had no direct evidence of the fact.”
That they are not always capable of long-sustained flights,
however, is proved by Mr. J. G. Millais, who, in 1891, saw five
or six attempt to cross Loch Ness at Foyers, where it is more
than a mile wide. ‘They fell into the water when about three-
parts of the way across.

The pheasant, like most of its congeners, is a terrestrial
bird, seeking its food, making its nest, and rearing its young
upon the surface of the ground. Its legs, like those of all
true rasorial or scratching birds, are strong and muscular,
consequently it is capable of running with great speed. The

12 Natural History.

strong blunt claws are admirably adapted for scratching seeds
and tuberous roots from the ground, or worms and larve
from beneath fallen leaves.

Though seldom taking voluntarily to the water, the
pheasant is quite capable of swimming, as is proved by the
following instances. A well-known game preserver writes :
* When out walking to-day with my keeper, near the end of a
long pond adjacent to one of my woods, we fancied that
we heard some young pheasants callmg in the high grass. .
On going up to the place where we had heard the noise, an
old hen pheasant got up and flew over the pond, which is
about eighteen or nineteen feet wide at this place and about
four feet deep. To our astonishment one of the young birds
ran down to the water, went into it, and swam safely to the
other side after its mother. The young birds could not have
been more than fourteen days old.” Old birds will also
voluntarily swim across rivers, as in the following instance:
“While flogging the waters of the Usk, I saw a sight that
struck me with astonishment. A fine cock pheasant was
walking about on the bank of the nver, here quite thirty
yards broad and running at the rate of four knots an hour.
On our approach he quietly took to the water like a duck,
and, after floating down stream a few yards, boldly struck
across, and, swimming high and with great ease, reached the
bank nearly opposite to the spot whence he set out.” And
other similar cases are on record, thus—Mr. Donald Campbell,
of Dunstaffinage, Oban, states : “‘ Six pheasants, five cocks and
a hen, attempted to fly across Loch Etive from one of the
Ardchattan coverts on the north side of the loch, which near
that spot varies from half a mile to a mile in width. When
about half-way across one of them was seen either to fall or
alight on the water, and its example was immediately followed
by the other five. Fortunately the son of the Ardchattan
gamekeeper, who was in a boat on the loch at the time,
observed the occurrence, and rowed to the spot ; but as he had
some distance to go, by the time he reached the birds they were

Courtship. i

very much exhausted and half drowned, and were drifting
helplessly with the tide. He got them into the boat and
took them ashore, and, after being well dried and placed in
warm boxes near a good fire, they all eventually recovered.
The day was cold and frosty, and there was a shght fog on
the water.’ When winged and dropped into the water,
pheasants swim with facility, and some instances are on record
of their diving beneath the surface and rising at some
distance.

As the breeding season approaches, the crow of the male,
resembling the imperfect attempts of a young fowl, may be
heard distinctly. It is followed, and not preceded as in the
game cock, by the clapping of the wings; the pheasant and
the domestic cock invariably reversing the order of the succes-
sion of these two actions. Like the domestic fowl, pheasants
will also answer any loud noise such as thunder, occurring
either by day or night; they have been noticed replying
regularly to the signal gun at Shorncliffe, which is fired at
sunrise and sunset, and this in coverts situated some miles
distant ; and the practice with the heavy guns at various
military stations will often cause a chorus of “ cucketing ”
in all the coverts for a great distance round. During the war,
particularly in the years 1917-18, it must have been noticed
by many persons in country districts that air raids on London
would be signalled by pheasants at quite long distances, even
when the noise of the bombardment was to human listeners
inaudible.

The display of the plumage during courtship by the males
varies in almost every species of gallinaceous birds. That of
the pheasant was carefully described by the late Mr. T. W.
Wood, in an interesting article on the “‘ Courtship of Birds.”
Pheasants seem to possess no other mode of display than the
lateral or one-sided method. In this the males disport them-
selves so as to exhibit to the females a greater number of
their beautiful feathers than could otherwise be seen at one
view. In the peculiar attitude assumed by the male of the

14 Natural History. /

common species, the wing of the side nearest the female is
partly opened and depressed, precisely in the same manner
as performed by the male of the common fowl, and, in addition,
the tail is expanded, and the upper surface turned towards
the same side, whilst the bright vermilion skin around the
eve is greatly extended, and the little purple aigrettes erected.
Singular modifications of this sexual display of the plumage
occur in the Argus and Golden Pheasant and other species,
which will be noticed in the chapters relating to those birds.

In a state of nature there is little doubt that the pheasant
is polygamous. The males are armed with spurs, with which
they fight, the stronger driving away the weaker, and the most
vigorous propagate their kind.

The nest of the female is usually a simple hollow scraped
in the ground. After depositing her eggs (usually about
eight or nine in number) she is deserted by the male, and the
task of incubation and rearing the young depends on her
alone. The eggs vary in colour from a greenish brown to a
greyish green ; in size they are, on the average, an inch and
five-sixths in length, by an inch and five-twelfths in width.
The period of incubation is twenty-four days.

Hen pheasants, like common fowls, not infrequently have
nests in common, in which case as many as eighteen or
twenty eggs will be found together. Sometimes three hens
will take to the same nest, and as many as thirty eggs have
been seen resulting from their co-partnership. It is still
more singular that the pheasant and the partridge often share
the same nest (see Zoologist, 1886, p. 295, i which volume
also will be found mention of a pheasant and wild duck sharing
the same nest). Mr. Walter Yate, of Pemberton, Shropshire,
stated : ‘‘ About a week ago one of my workmen informed me
that he had found a nest containing both partridge’s and
pheasant’s eggs. I accompanied him to the place, and there
saw the pheasant and partridge seated side by side with the
utmost amity. JI then had the birds driven off, and saw
fifteen partridge’s and sixteen pheasant’s eggs laid indiscrimin-

Nesting Habits. L5

ately together. The eggs were placed as though the nest
had been common to both.” Another correspondent writes :
“ About three weeks ago, when walking round a small wood
belonging to me, and in which I usually breed a good sprinkle
of pheasants, I discovered a partridge sitting on the edge of
the bank of the wood ; and when she went off to feed I was
much astonished to find that she was sitting on nine pheasant’s
eggs and thirteen of her own, and, after sitting the usual
time, hatched them all out.” Mr. R. Bagnall-Wild records
that “‘in June his keeper noticed three partridge nests
with thirteen, eleven, and eleven partridges’ eggs and
four, two, and two pheasants’ respectively in them. He
carefully watched, and in all three cases found that the
pheasants were hatched with the young partridges; and in
September the young pheasants still kept with their respective
coveys of partridges.”’ Sometimes the hen pheasant, and not
the partridge, is the foster parent. In the neighbourhood
of Chesham, on May 6, 1873, three pheasunts’ nests were
observed to contain the following eggs: the first, on which
the hen was sitting, twenty-two pheasants’ and two French
partridge’s eggs ; the second, eleven pheasant’s and five French
partridge’s eggs; and the third, six pheasant’s and seven
French partridge’s eggs. Mr. W. D. Collins, of Cuckfield,
records the fact that he found a grey partridge sitting on twelve
of her own eggs, nine eggs of the red-legged partridge, and
nine pheasant’s eggs, all the three species having laid in the
same nest. Mr. Higgins, of Hambledon, states that “A
pheasant hatched out, in a piece of vetches of mine, seven
partridges and five pheasants on July 6. She sat on nine of
her own eggs and eight partridge eggs.” In some cases the
nest is even of a more composite character, and the eggs of the
common fowl and those of partridges and pheasants, have
all been found together; and instances have been
recorded of wild hen pheasants laying in the nests of tame,
and also of wild ducks, and in the nests of the corncrake and
woodcock.

16 Natural History.

Although there is usually some attempt at concealment
under covert, pheasants’ nests are not infrequently placed.
even by perfectly wild birds, in very exposed situations.
Mr. John Walton, of Sholton Hall, Durham, related the
following account of the singular tameness of a wild-bred bird :
“A hen pheasant—a perfectly wild one so far as rearing is
concerned, for we have no artificial processes here—selected
as the site for her nest a hedge by a private cart-road, where
she was exposed to the constant traffic of carts, farm servants,
and others, passing and repassing her quarters, all of which
she took with infinite composure. She was very soon
discovered on her nest, and actually suffered herself when
sitting to be stroked down her plumage by the children and
others who visited her, and this without budging an inch.
In fact, she seemed rather to like it. Perhaps she became a
pet with the neighbours from this unusual docility, and her
brood (fourteen in number) was thereby saved ; for every egg
was hatched, and the young birds have all got safely away.”

Habitually a nester on the ground, the hen pheasant will
sometimes select the deserted nest of a pigeon or squirrel as a
place for the deposition and incubation of her eggs. Several
examples of this occurrence are on record, but the following
may suffice to prove that the circumstance is not so infrequent
as may have been supposed. One correspondent writes as
follows: ‘‘ Our head keeper told me that one of his watchers
had found a pheasant’s nest up a spruce fir tree. I was
incredulous, so I went with him, and had the under-man there
to show us. The bird was sitting on the nest—an old squirrel’s.
The man said she had twelve eggs. He also told us that he
knew of another in a similar situation in the same plantation.
The nest I saw was about twelve feet from the ground. The
watchers found it in looking for nests of flying vermin, as some
had escaped the traps.”

Another states: “A keeper on the Culhorn estate, when
on his rounds in search of vermin, observed a nest, which he
took to be that of a hawk, on a Scotch fir tree, about fifteen

Nests in Trees. ily

feet from the ground. On throwing up a stone out flew a
fine hen pheasant. The keeper then ascended the tree, and
found, to his astonishment, eight pheasant’s eggs in an old
owl’s nest. He removed the eggs, and placed them under a
hen, and at the expiration of three days he had eight fine
lively pheasant chicks.”’

A third states that “at Chaddlewood, near Plympton,
Devon, a pheasant has built its nest (twelve feet from the
ground) in a fork of an ash tree close to the house, and has
laid eight eggs.”

It is difficult to ascertain whether or not in the instances
in which the young are hatched in these elevated situations,
they fall out of the nest and survive or are killed and carried
away by predatory animals, or whether they are safely
removed by the parent birds, and if so, by what means.
Even the following accounts do not throw much light upon
the subject. In the Zoologist for 1894 (p. 266) the late Lord
_ Lilford wrote that a pheasant had appropriated a wood-
pigeon’s nest, in which she had laid nine eggs. Three young
birds were afterwards found dead at the foot of the tree
which contained the nest, the inference being that the
remainder of the brood had reached the ground in safety. A
correspondent of the Field stated that “A hen pheasant
made her nest in an oak tree, about nine feet from the ground.
The young were hatched, and she succeeded in taking seven
young ones safely to the ground, leaving five dead in the nest,
and one bad egg.” Another stated that in the park at
Fillnmgham, Lincoln, a pheasant deposited eight eggs in the
nest of a woodpigeon in a fir tree upwards of sixteen feet
from the ground; she hatched out seven of them, but was
unfortunate, as four were killed ; they were supposed to have
fallen from the nest. A third reported that on the estate
of the Marquis of Hertford, at Sudborne Hall, Suffolk, a
pheasant had taken possession of a nest deserted by a sparrow-
hawk, in a spruce fir, twenty-five feet from the ground, and

hatched eight young ones, seven of which she succeeded in
@

Ls Natural History.

bringing safely down, but in what manner was not stated.
Mr. Arthur Cole, of Eccles Hall, Attleborough, Norfolk,
writing in 1897, states that “on May 7 I found a pheasant
sitting on eight eggs in an old squirrel’s drey 16ft. Tin. from
the ground. It is the more curious as the drey is by no means
on strong boughs, and, therefore, must sway tremendously as
the bird goes on and off.” Other instances are recorded of
nests in a thorn tree 11ft. from the ground, in a straw sack
10ft. high, and in an oak tree at a height of 21ft.

Although as a rule the male pheasant takes no heed of the
eggs laid by the female, or of the offspring when hatched,
there are some well ascertained exceptions. Wild cock
pheasants have been seen sitting in nests in the coverts by
perfectly credible witnesses; and, although it has _ been
suggested that the birds might have been hens that had
assumed the male plumage, such an occurrence is even more
unlikely than that a cock should sit, for these hens are always
barren, and must have assumed the male plumage at the
previous autumnal moult ; in this condition they have never
been known to manifest the slightest desire to incubate.
Cocks have also been known to protect the young birds, as in
the following instance, which occurred in Aberdeenshire: “ I
have for the last fortnight almost daily watched a cock
pheasant leading about a brood of young ones, whose mother
has evidently come to grief. A more attentive and careful
nurse could not be than this cock. He boldly follows his
young charge on the lawns and to other places where he
never ventured before, finds them food, and stands sentry
over them with untiring perseverance. They are thriving
so well under his care and growing so fast, that they will
soon be able to shift for themselves.”

The same singular occurrence has also taken place in an
aviary. Lord Willoughby de Broke some time since published
the following letter: “I have an aviary in which there is a
cock pheasant and four or five hens of the Chinese breed ; at
the beginning of the laying season the cock scraped a hole in

Dates of Laying. 19

the sand, in which the hen laid four eggs; he then collected
a quantity of loose sticks, formed a perfect nest, and began
to sit ; he sat most patiently, seldom leaving the nest till the
egas were chipped, when the keeper, afraid of his killing
them, took them from him, and placed them under a hen
pheasant who was sitting on bad eggs ; they were hatched the
next day, and the young birds are now doing well.” Other
eases of cock pheasants incubating were recorded in the Field
of Julv 5 and 19, 1892.

Pheasants usually commence to lay in this country in
April or May, the date varying somewhat with the season
and the latitude. The eggs of penned birds have often been
found in the first week of April, and even in the last week
of March. In consequence of the artificial state in which
they are kept in preserves, and the superabundance of food
with which they are supplied, the production of eggs, as in
domesticated fowls, often takes place at most irregular periods.
Many instances are recorded of perfect eggs being found in
the oviducts of pheasants shot during the months of December
and January. Jor example, Sir D. W. Legard, writing from
Ganton, Yorkshire, on December 27, 1864, said: “‘ At the
conclusion of a day’s covert shooting last Tuesday, a hen
pheasant which had been killed was discovered by a keeper
to have a lump of some hard substance in her ; he opened her
in my presence, when, to my astonishment, he extracted an
egg perfectly formed, shelled, and apparently ready to be laid ;
it was of the usual size, but the colour, stead of being olive,
was a greyish-white.”

A nest containing an egg has been noticed as early
as March 12, and many cases are recorded of strong
broods of young during the first few days of May. Lord
Warwick’s keeper, J. Edwards, in May, 1868, wrote as
follows: “‘ Yesterday (the 16th inst.), whilst searching for
pheasant eggs-in Grayfield Wood, I came upon a nest of
thirteen pheasant eggs, twelve just hatched and run, and one

left cheeping in the shell. The bird must have begun. to
Ue:

20 Natural History.

lay in the middle of March, as they sit twenty-five days, and
very often lay only every other day, at least at the commence-
ment.” Other cases earlier by three or four days than this
instance have been recorded. The late Rey. G. C. Green, of
Modbury, Devon, wrote: “ On Sunday, April 18, 1875, as my
curate was returning from taking the duty in a neighbouring
church, a hen pheasant started from the roadside hedge close
to the town, and fluttered before him. While watching her
movements he saw eleven young pheasants, apparently newly
hatched, fluttering in the hedge, and at the edge of a pond
close by. They soon scrambled into some cover, and the
mother bird flew off to rejom them from another quarter.
I understand, from inquiry, that this is not a solitary instance
of such an early brood of pheasants in South Devon.”

On the other hand, examples of nests deferred until very
late in the year are not unknown. Mr. W. W. Blest, of
Biddenden, near Staplehurst, writes: ‘‘ Whilst partridge
shooting on September 38, 1874, we disturbed a sitting
pheasant, the nest containing twelve eggs. We often hear
of the early nesting of game birds, but rarely so late in
the season.” On October 1, 1894, a nest with eight eggs
was found in a turnip field in Forfarshire. In October, 1869,
Mr. Walter R. Tyrrell, of Plashwood, near Stowmarket,
forwarded to me a young pheasant, with the following letter :
‘When pheasant shooting with some friends yesterday,
the 15th inst., in this neighbourhood, one of the keepers
picked up dead, in a path in the wood we were in, a very
young chick pheasant ; it could not have been hatched more
than a week. My keeper tells me he has found them (but very
rarely) as young in September.” I carefully examined the
young bird, which was not more than two or three days old.
On October 20, 1900, Mr. A. Dunnage, of Colchester, forwarded
to me a pheasant chick, one of a brood in a hedgerow, not
near to any covert. These late-hatched birds were in all
probability the produce of a second laying during the
season.

Weight. 2h

The artificial state in which these birds exist, as supplied
with nutritive food and protected in our coverts and preserves,
leads to other departures from their natural conditions. Thus
variations of plumage and size are much more frequent and
more marked than would occur in the case of birds in a
perfectly wild state. In some instances the size is very
greatly increased. Hen pheasants usually weigh from two
pounds to two pounds and a quarter, whilst the usual weight
of cock pheasants is from about three pounds to three pounds
and a half. Yarrell, in his “ History of British Birds,”
mentions two unusually large; he says ‘ The lghter bird
of the two just turned the scale against four and a half
pounds; the other took the scale down at once. ‘The
weights were accurately ascertained, in the presence of several
friends, to decide a wager of which I was myself the loser.”
On November 12, 1897, a cock was shot at Pluckley, in Kent,
which weighed four and three-quarter pounds. One of five
pounds and half an ounce was sent me by Mr. Carr, of the
Strand ; this was a last year’s bird of the common species.
And in 1859 one bird, of the enormous weight of five pounds
and three-quarters, was sent by Mr. Akroyd, of Boddington
Park, Nantwich, to Mr. Shaw, of Shrewsbury, for preservation.
Mr. Akroyd further stated that “‘ the bird was picked up with
broken leg and wing forty-eight hours after the covert was
shot, so had probably lost weight to some extent.” In reply
to the suggestion that it might possibly have been a large
hybrid between the pheasant and the domestic fowl, Mr.
Akroyd further stated “‘ that the bird looked all its weight,
and was as distinguished amongst its fellows as a turkey
would be amongst fowls; yet it had no hybrid appearance
whatever’; and Mr. Shaw stated that he weighed it several
times. Moreover, he said, “the bird, had it been picked
up when shot, would, I have little doubt, have weighed
six pounds, there being nothing in its craw but two single
grains of Indian corn; and when the length of time it
remained wounded on the ground, with a broken thigh and

22 Natural History.

wing is taken into consideration, there can be little doubt of
the fact.” But the largest on record was described in the eld,
vol. xlvi., p. 179, by the Rev. G. C. Green, who wrote : “ I have
received the following from Mr. Kelly in consequence of a
discussion in the Field about the weight of a pheasant:
“Some few years since, while Admiral Sir Houston Stewart
was residing at Gunton, he sent me a pheasant that weighed
6lb. wanting loz. He was an old bird, and the most splendid
in form and plumage that I ever beheld. A few days after-
wards being at Gunton, I told Sir Houston that I had weighed
the bird, but I thought my weights must be incorrect, and
asked him whether he knew its weight. He said, “ You are
quite right. I weighed it before I sent it to you, and that is
my weight.” ’’’ In these cases of exceptionally large birds
it is usually found that the extreme weight is owing to the
fattening influence of the maize on which they had been fed.

The species of pheasants enumerated by Mr. Ogilvie Grant in his
work on Game Birds are as follows :—

. The Common Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus).
. The Persian Pheasant (P. persicus).

. Prince of Wales’s Pheasant (P. principalis).
. Zerafshan Pheasant (P. zerafshanicus).
Shaw’s Pheasant (P. shawi).

. Tarim Pheasant (P. tarimensis).

Oxus Pheasant (P. chrysomzlas).

. Mongolian Pheasant (P. mongolicus).

. Chinese Pheasant (P. torquatus).

. The Satschuen Pheasant (P. satschwenensis).
. Formosan Pheasant (P. formosanus).

. Chinese Ringless Pheasant (P. decollatus).

. Strauch’s Pheasant (P. strauchi).

. Vlangali’s Pheasant (P. vlangalit).

. Stone’s Pheasant (P. elegans).

. Japanese Pheasant (P. versicolor).

. Scemmerring’s Pheasant (P. sxmmerringi).
18. Reeves’s Pheasant (P. reevesit) ;

in addition to which Mr. H. E. Dresser has described the following new
Japanese species in The Ibis for 1902, p. 656:

19, Ijima’s*Pheasant (P. ijime) ;

SHHMNAMN PR wd

il ol
Hm WO be

ee cell onl
TS Ot

New Species. 23

and the Hon. Walter Rothschild the following species in the Bulletin of
the British Ornithologists’ Club, vol. xii., p. 20:

20. Berezowsky’s Pheasant (P. berezowskyi).

21. Sungarian Pheasant (P. alpherakyi).

To these should be added the closely allied birds which have been
assigned to the genus Calophasis. These differ only from the other
pheasants in having sixteen tail feathers and the lower back of the
males transversely barred. Two species only are known:

22. Elliot’s Pheasant (Calophasis ellioti).
23. Hume’s Pheasant (C. humic).

RE DIDI NIA NANG

FOG

) Kf OE JaniZ|
WOR WN VON GN AGN

CHAPTER II.

The Pheasant in History—Introduction into
Britain—Distribution.

T is sometimes suggested by persons ignorant of the true

nature of the pheasant that it might be domesticated and

reared like our ordinary farmyard fowl. Such persons are
apparently not aware that the instinct of domestication is
one of the rarest possessed by animals. Man has been for some
thousands of years capturing, subduing, and taming hundreds
of different species of animals of all classes ; but of these the
number that he has succeeded in really domesticating does
not amount to fifty. A very large proportion of animals
are capable of being tamed and rendered perfectly familiar
with man; but this is a totally distinct state from one of
domestication. The common pheasant is a good example of
this distinction. Individual examples may he rendered so
tame as to become even troublesome from their courage and
familiarity ; but although others have been bred in aviaries for
many generations, their offspring still retain their original wild-
ness, and when let out at large betake themselves to the woods
and coverts as soon as they are able to shift for themselves.
On the other hand, the allied species, the jungle fowl (Gallus
ferrugineus), the original of our domestic breeds of poultry,
if reared in confinement, becomes immediately domesticated,
the young returning home at night with a regularity that
has given rise to the proverbial saying that “ Curses, like
chickens, come home to roost.”

Examples of the tameness of individual pheasants are not
rare; to the fearless nature of a sitting hen I have already
alluded. The males become even more familiar, and at
times aggressive; one of the most amusing examples was

5 Inherited Wildness. 95

recorded in days of the old fashions by a correspondent, who
wrote as follows : ““ Having recently been on a visit to a friend
of mine living in Kent, I had an opportunity of there witnessing
the effect of an extraordinary antipathy to crinoline exemplified
in a fine cock pheasant which inhabited, or rather infested,
the grounds and shrubbery. He had been originally, I believe,
reared on the premises, but had become as wild as any of his
fellows, and, after having been lord of a harem of some seven
or eight ladies last spring, who had all reared their families
and gone off with them, had been left in loneliness, with his
temper soured against the female sex at large. His beat was
for about a quarter of a mile between the house and the
entrance-gate, and on the approach of anything in the shape
of crinoline his temper was roused to such a degree that he
attacked it with all his might and main, flying up at the
unnatural appendage, pecking fiercely with his bill, and
striking out at it with his spurs like any game-cock. I
witnessed all this with my own eyes, and was not surprised
at the terror he had created among the females, by whom he
was positively dreaded, and not without reason. One lady
had promised to protect herself by taking a terrier as her
guardian, which at first offered fight in her defence, but was
soon compelled to show the white feather, and at the very
sight of his antagonist ran off with his tail between his legs.
At length, however, he met with his master in the shape of a
gipsy-woman, who, being of course uncrinolined, and there-
fore considering herself unjustly attacked, set upon him, and
not only pulled out his tail, but crushed him with her foot,
and left him on his back apparently in the agonies of death.
The domestics, however, went to his assistance, and by their
kind attentions he was restored. Still, his old antipathy
revived with his returning strength, and in a day or two the sight
of crinoline again roused his wrath. Therefore, for fear of his
meeting with an untimely end from some other strong-minded
woman, it was decided that he should have his wing clipped,
and be kept prisoner within the walls of the kitchen-garden.”

26 Natural History.

The wife of Mr. Barnes (formerly head keeper to Mr. D.
Wynham, of Denton Hall, near Salisbury) carefully nursed
a very young hen pheasant with a broken leg. She
got well and in course of time was turned out with the rest
of the brood into the adjacent woods. For several seasons
afterwards this hen brought her own brood to the keeper’s
lodge.

Mr. T. B. Johnson, in his ‘‘ Gamekeeper’s Directory,”
mentions one he had reared from the nest that became
uncommonly familiar. ‘‘ It will follow me,” he writes, “ into
the garden or homestead, where it will feed on insects and
grass, and I occasionally observed it swallow large worms.
Of all things, however, flies appear to be its favourite food.
Before he was able to fly, I frequently lifted him into the
window, and it was truly amusing to witness his dexterity in
fly catching. He had been named Dick, to which he answers
as well as possible. Dick is a very social being, who cannot
endure being left alone; and if it so happen (as it
occasionally does) that the bird finds every person has quitted
the room, he immediately goes in search of some of the
family ; if the door be shut, and his egress thus denied, he
utters the most plaintive noise, evidently testifying every
symptom of uneasiness and fear in being separated from his
friends and protectors. Dick is a great favourite, and on
this account is suffered to take many liberties. When
breakfast is brought in he jumps on the table, and very
unceremoniously helps himself to bread, or to whatever he
takes a fancy ; but, different from the magpie or jackdaw
under similar circumstances Dick is easily checked. He is
fond of stretching himself in the sunbeams; and if this be
not attainable, before the kitchen fire. On being taken into
the house he was presented to the view of the cat, the latter
at the same time being given to understand that the bird was
privileged, and that she must not disturb him. The cat is
evidently not fond of Dick as an inmate, but she abstains
from violence. I have seen her, it is true, give him a blow

Attempts at Domestication. 27

with her paw, but this only occurs when the bird attempts to
take bread, etc., from her; and not always then, as she
frequently suffers herself to be robbed by him. Dick has also
made friends with my poimters. He sleeps in my _bed-
room, but is by no means so early a riser as his fraternity in
a state of nature; however, when he comes forth his antics
are amusing enough; he shakes himself, jumps and _ flies
about the room for several minutes, and then descends into
the breakfast-room.” Whether this bird would or would not
have continued tame and domesticated during the following
breeding season was unfortunately never ascertained, as it
partook of the fate of most pets, and was killed accidentally
by the opening of a door.

The incapacity of pheasants for domestication has been
remarked by all those who have tried in vain to rear them as
domestic birds. Charles Waterton, of Walton Hall, York-
shire, who died in 1865, made the attempt under most advan-
tageous circumstances, and thus recounts the results of his
experiments : ‘‘ Notwithstanding the proximity of the pheasant
to the nature of the barndoor fowl, still it has that within it
which baffles every attempt on our part to render its domesti-
cation complete. What I allude to is a most singular innate
timidity, which never fails to show itself on the sudden and
abrupt appearance of an object. I spent some months in
trying to overcome this timorous propensity in the pheasant,
but I failed completely in the attempt. The young birds,
which had been hatched under a domestic hen, soon became
very tame, and would even receive food from the hand when
it was offered cautiously to them. They would tly up to the
window, and would feed in company with the common poultry,
but if anybody approached them unawares, off they went to
the nearest covert with surprising velocity ; they remained in
it till all was quiet, and then returned with their usual con-
fidence. ‘T'wo of them lost their lives in the water by the
unexpected appearance of a pointer, while the barndoor fowls
seemed scarcely to notice the presence of the intruder; the

28 The Pheasant in History.

rest took finally to the woods at the commencement of the
breeding season. ‘his particular kind of timidity, which
does not appear in our domestic fowls, seems to me to oppose
the only, though at the same time an unsurmountable, bar
to our final triumph over the pheasant. After attentive
observation, I can perceive nothing else in the habits of the
bird to serve as a clue by which we may be enabled to trace
the cause of failure in the many attempts which have been
made to invite it to breed in our yards, and retire to rest
with the barndoor fowl and turkey.”

With regard to the date of the introduction of the
pheasant into England, there are no records which afford any
clue to the precise date when it was first brought to this
country ; and though probably its acclimatisation does not
go further back than the Norman Conquest, yet it is possible
that our Roman invaders may have imported it at a much
earlier period, with other imperial luxuries.

Lord Lilford, in his ‘‘ Notes on the Birds of Northampton-
shire,’ writes : ‘‘ There appears to be no reason to doubt that
the pheasant was introduced into England by the Romans,
and the bird has now become so spread over most parts of
Kurope that it is almost impossible to say where it is really
indigenous.”

This suggestion is possibly near the truth, for the pheasant
has been shown by Prof. Boyd Dawkins to have been
naturalised in this country upwards of eight hundred years.
Writing in The Ibis for 1869 (page 358), he observes: “ It
may interest your readers to know that the most ancient
record of the occurrence of the pheasant in Great Britain is
to be found in the tract ‘ De inventione Sanctz Crucis nostre
in Monte Acuto et de ductione ejusdem apud Waltham,’
edited from manuscripts in the British Museum by Professor
Stubbs, and published in 1861. The bill of fare drawn up
by Harold for the Canons’ households of from six to seven
persons, A.D. 1059, and preserved in a manuscript of the
date circa 1177, was as follows :

Introduction into Britain. 29

“Erant autem tales pitantiz unicuique canonico: a festo Sancti
Michaelis usque ad caput jejunii [Ash Wednesday] aut xii merule, aut ii
agausex [ Agace, a magpie (?), Ducange], aut ii perdices, aut unus phasianus,
reliquis temporibus aut ance [Geese, Ducange] aut galline.

“Now the point of this passage is that it shows that
Phasianus colchicus had become naturalised in England before
the Norman invasion ; and as the English and Danes were not
the introducers of strange animals in any well authenticated
case, it offers fair presumptive evidence that it was intro-
duced by the Roman conquerors, who naturalised the fallow
deer in Britain.

“The eating of magpies at Waltham, though singular,
was not so remarkable as the eating of horse by the monks of
St. Galle in the time of Charles the Great and the returning
thanks to God for it :

** Sit feralis equi caro dulcis sub cruce Christi !

The bird was not so unclean as the horse—the emblem of
paganism—was unholy.”

But the conclusion that the pheasant was introduced into
England before the Norman Conquest is not regarded as
proved by those authorities who consider the tract “ De
inventione Crucis”? as a miracle-mongering work that no
cautious antiquary would accept as conclusive evidence.

In Dugdale’s “‘ Monasticon Anglicanum” is a reference
from which it appears that the Abbot of Amesbury obtained a
licence to kill hares and pheasants in the first years of the
reign of King Henry the First, which commenced on the
second of August, 1100; and Daniell, in his “ Rural Sports,”
quotes ‘‘ Echard’s History of England ”’ to the effect that in
the year 1299 (the twenty-seventh of Edward I.) the price
of a pheasant was fourpence, a couple of woodcocks three-
halfpence, a mallard three-halfpence, and a plover one penny.

“To these notices,’ writes the Rev. James Davis in the
Saturday Review, “might have been added another which
seems to set the pheasant at a higher premium—to wit,
that in 1170 Thomas 4 Becket, on the day of his martyrdom,

30 The Pheasant in History.

dined on a pheasant, and enjoyed it, as it would seem from
the remark of one of his monks, that ‘he dined more heartily
and cheerfully that day than usual.’ ”’

Those who are interested in the subject will find a most
interesting series of extracts respecting the medieval history
of this bird in Mr. Harting’s “‘ Ornithology of Shakespeare,”
from which we quote the following :

“ Leland, in his account of the feast given at the inthronisa-
tion of George Nevell, Archbishop of York, in the reign of
Edward IV., tells us that, amongst other good things, two
hundred ‘ fesauntes ’ were provided for the guests.

“In the ‘ Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York,’
under date ‘ the xij" day of Novembre,’ the following entry
occurs :

“<«TItm. The same day to Richard Mylner of |
Byndfeld for bringing a present of fesauntes
cokkes to the Queen to Westminster ee vs"

“In the ‘ Household Book’ of Henry Perey, fifth Earl
of Northumberland, which was commenced in 1512, the
pheasant is thus referred to:

““Ttem, FrEsAuNTES to be had for my Lordes own Mees at
Principall Feestes and to be at xijd. a pece.

“*Ttem, Fressauntis for my Lordes owne Meas to be hadde at
Principalle Feistis and to be xijd. a pece.’ *

* “ As a copy of the ‘ Northumberland Household Book ’ is not readily
accessible, we give the following interesting extract, showing the price, at
that date, of various birds for the table:

“Capons at iid. a pece leyn (lean). Pettryges at iid. a pece.

Chickeyns at $d. a pece. Redeshanks id.
Hennys at iid. a pece. Bytters (i.e. Bitterns) xiid.
Swannys (no price stated). Fesauntes xiid.
Geysse iiid. or iiiid. at the moste. Reys (i.e. Rufis and Reeves) iid. a
Pluvers id. or i3d. at moste. pece.
Cranys xvid. a pece. Sholardes (Spoonbills) viid. a pece.
Hearonsewys (i.e. Heronshaws or Kyrlewes xiid. a pece.

Herons) xiid. a pece. Pacokes xiid. a pece.
Mallardes iid. a pece. Sea Pyes (no price).

Woodcokes id. or i3d. at the Wigions at i3d. the pece.
moste. Knottes id. a pece.

Prices of Game. 31

“Tn the year 1536, Henry VIII. issued a proclamation in
order to preserve the partridges, pheasants, and herons
“from his palace at Westminster to St. Giles-in-the-Fields,
and from thence to Islington, Hampstead, Highgate, and
Hornsey Park.’ Any person, of whatever rank, who should
presume to kill, or in any wise molest these birds, was to be
thrown into prison, and visited by such other punishments as
to the King should soon seem meet.

“Some interesting particulars in regard to pheasants are
furnished by the ‘ Privy Purse Expenses of King Henry VIII.’
For example, under date xvj' Nov. 1532, we have :

“«« Ttm the same daye paied to the fesaunt

breder in rewarde Ss ts ee | exse cil ds
‘«<¢ Jtm the xxv daye paied to the preste the

fesaunt breder at Eltham in rewarde 1

corons oe = ee ee ae Exsy en td

“ And in December of the same year :

«<< Ttm the xxijd. daye paied to the french
Preste the fesaunt breder for to bye

him a gowne and other necesarys ba UN KIS:,

“From these entries it would appear that even at this
date some trouble and expense were incurred in rearing
pheasants. No allusion, however, is made to their being

Teylles id. a pece. Dottrells id. a pece.
Wypes (i.e. Lapwings) id. a pece. Bustardes (no price).
Seegulles id. or id. at the moste. Ternes after iii. a id.

Styntes after vi. a id. Great byrdes after iiii. a id.
Quaylles iid. a pece at moste. Small byrdes after xii. for iid.
Snypes after iii. a id. Larkys after xii. for iid.’

“This extract is especially interesting as throwing light incidentally on
the condition of the country ; the unreclaimed state of the land is shown
by the abundance and cheapness of the wading birds. Woodcocks at a
penny, and snipes at three a penny, contrast strongly with partridges at
twopence and pheasants and peacocks at twelvepence each. Nor is the
change in the degree of estimation in which the birds are now held less
remarkable. Curlews, herons, and bitterns, which are now scarcely valued
as edible, ranked equal to pheasants and peacocks, and were three or four
times the value of a grouse, whilst a fishy sea-gull was worth two or three
chicken or one woodcock.”

32 The Pheasant in History.

shot. They must have been taken in a net or snare, or killed
with a hawk. ‘The last-named mode is indicated from another
source :*

““Ttem, a Fesant kylled with the Goshawke.
““A notice, two Fesants and two Partridges killed with the
hawks.’

“As a rule they are only referred to as being ‘ brought
in,’ the bearer receiving a gratuity for his trouble.

“<* Jan’ 1536-7. Itm. geuen to Hunte
yeoman of the pultry, bringing to hir
gce two qwicke (v.e. live) phesants .... vijS. vj.
«* Ap’ 1537. Itm. geuen to Grene the
ptrich taker bringing a cowple of
Phesaunts to my lady’s grace x
«<* Jan. 1537-8. Itm. geuen to my lady
Carows sunt bringing a _ quicke
Phesaunt ... a as ” ae iS.
“<« Jan. 1543-4. Itm. geuen to Hawkyn,
sunte of Hertford bringing a phesant
and ptrichest ... ie sf wa, LS wend

iijS. ixd.

“In a survey of the possessions of the Abbey of Glaston-
bury made in 1539, mention is made of a ‘ game’ of sixteen
pheasants in the woods at Meare, a manor near Glastonbury
belonging to the Abbey.

“The value set upon pheasants and partridges at various
periods, as shown by the laws fixing penalties for their
destruction, seems to have fluctuated considerably.

“ By a statute passed in the eleventh year of the reign of
Henry VIII. it was forbidden ‘ to take pheasants or partridges
with engines in another’s ground without licence in pain of
ten pound, to be divided between the owner of the ground
and the prosecutor.’ By 238 Eliz. c. 10, ‘None should
kill or take pheasants or partridges by night in pain of 20s.

* “ «Extracts from the Household and Privy Purse Accounts of the
L’Estranges of Hunstanton, 1519—1578.’ (Trans. Roy. Soc. Antiq. 1833.)

+ “**The Privy Purse Expenses of the Princess Mary, 1536—1544.’
(Edited by Sir F. Madden, 1831.)

Early Game Laws. 33

a pheasant, and 10s. a partridge, or one month’s imprison-
ment, and bound with sureties not to offend again in the
like kind.’ By 1 Jac. I. c. 27, ‘ No person shall kill or take
any pheasant, partridge (etc.), or take or destroy the eggs
of pheasants, partridges (etc.), in pain of 20s., or imprisonment
for every fowl or egg, and to find sureties in £20 not to offend
in the like kind.’ Under the same statute, no person was
permitted * to buy or sell any pheasant or partridge, upon pain
or forfeit of 20s. for every pheasant, and 10s. for every part-
ridge. By 7 Jac. I. c. 11, ‘Every person having hawked
at or destroyed any pheasant or partridge between the Ist of
July and last of August, forfeited 40s. for every time so
hawking, and 20s. for every pheasant or partridge so destroyed
or taken.’ Lords of manors and their servants might take
pheasants and partridges in their own grounds or precincts
in the daytime between Michaelmas and Christmas. But
every person of a mean condition having killed or taken any
pheasant or partridge, forfeited 20s. for each one so killed, and
had to find surety in £20 not to offend so again.”

For an early notice of the pheasant in Suffolk, namely, in
1467, Mr. Harting has referred me to the household expenses
of Sir John Howard, Knight, afterwards Duke of Norfolk,
edited by Beriah Botfield for the Roxburgh Club, wherein
(at p. 399), under the date of April, 1467, at Ipswich, there
is the entry : “ Item xii. fesawntes pryse xii°.”” He adds that
there is apparently no earlier mention of the pheasant in
Norfolk than some reference in the accounts of the
L’Estranges at Hunstanton in 1519, and the entry above
quoted is the earliest for Suffolk. Mr. Harting further
informs me that he has seen an ancient Psalter belonging to
Lord Aldenham, in which there is a very fair coloured portrait
of a cock pheasant, dated a.p. 1260.

In Essex the pheasant is mentioned in a bill of fare,
a.D. 1059 (as already noticed), and this is apparently
the earliest allusion to the bird to be found in any part of

England.
D

34. The Pheasant in History.

In Ireland, as stated by Thompson in his natural history
of that country (1850), “ The period of its introduction is
unknown to me, but in the year 1589 it was remarked to be
common.” Fynes Moryson, who was in Ireland from 1599 to
1608, observes that there are “‘ such plenty of pheasants as I
have known sixty served up at one feast, and abound much
more with rails, but partridges are somewhat scarce.”

In Scotland the pheasant does not appear to have been
preserved at a very early period. Mr. R. Gray, in his work
on ‘“‘ The Birds of the West of Scotland,” says: “ The first
mention of the pheasant in old Scotch Acts is in one dated
June 8, 1594, in which year a keen sportsman occupied the
Scottish throne.” He might have been called “ James the
protector’ of all kinds of game, as in the aforesaid year he
‘* ordained that quhatsumever person or personnes at ony time
hereafter shall happen to slay deir, harts, pheasants, foulls,
partricks, or other wyld foule quhatsumever, ather with gun,
eroce bow, dogges, halks, or girnes, or by uther ingine
quhatsumever, or that beis found schutting with ony gun
therein,” ete., shall pay the usual “ hundreth punds,”’ ete.

The distribution of the pheasant over Great Britain and
Ireland at the present time is very general, it bemg found in
all parts of the kingdom where there is congenial shelter and
some slight attempt at preservation and protection, without
which it would soon be extirpated by poachers and _ its
numerous natural enemies.

It is abundant even in the most populous counties, and is
not at all uncommon in the immediate neighbourhood of the
metropolis. At the present time pheasants can be seen in
Kensington Gardens ; they bred there in 1920, and again the
following year in the garden in front of Kensington Palace.
They are a familiar sight on the garden lawn, and were fre-
quently to be found in the allotments which were laid out
during the war near the Kensington High Street. But it is
in the well-wooded and highly preserved districts of England
that these birds most abound, and where they are excessively

Distribution. a0

numerous. “The pheasant,’ writes Mr. Sterland, in his
** Birds of Sherwood Forest,” ‘“‘ abounds on all the estates in
the forest district, and to such an extent that few would
credit the immense numbers. They are almost as tame as
barndoor fowls, and may be seen on the skirts of the various
plantations. Carefully tended and fed, and all their natural
enemies destroyed, they become so accustomed to the presence
of man that in many parts they will hardly take the trouble
to get out of the way, and are scarcely entitled to the appella-
tion of wild. Under circumstances so favourable, they multiply
rapidly, but a natural limit seems to be set to their increase,
and frequently, where they are most abundant, large numbers
are found dead without apparent cause; these are always
exceedingly fat and their plumage in the glossiest condition ;
they seem to drop down and die without a struggle. I have
had them brought to me in this state, and have found their
flesh plump and of good colour, and every feather smooth
and perfect.” I should rather incline to attribute the death
in these cases to apoplexy, arising from over-feeding on maize
and stimulating artificial food, than to any epidemic disease
arising from overcrowding, as this attacks the young and
destroys them long before they arrive at maturity.

“In Norfolk,” writes Mr. Stevenson, in his admirable work
on the birds of that county, “ there are many portions where
the pheasant exists in a perfectly wild state, and thrives well
under the protection of the game laws, both soil and climate
being alike favourable. It is in such districts, almost exclu-
sively, that one still meets with the pure Phasianus colchicus
free from any trace of the ring-necked or Chinese cross in its
plumage, but offering at the same time a poor contrast to those
hybrid birds both im size and weight. Besides the thick
undergrowth in woods and plantations, pheasants are particu-
larly partial to low, damp situations, such as alder and osier
earrs, by the river side. In this country, also, stragglers from
some neighbouring coverts are not infrequently found on

the snipe marshes surrounding the Broads, where the sports-
D2

36 Distribution.

man, following up his dog at a ‘running point,’ is suddenly
startled by the whirr of a noble ‘long tail,’ when never
dreaming of any larger game than rails or water-hens.”

In Scotland it is now very generally distributed in the
western counties, from Wigtown in the south to Sutherland
in the north. Mr. R. Gray writes: ‘“ In the neighbourhood
of Loch Lomond it may occasionally be noticed on the
mountain sides, at a considerable elevation, sometimes
as far up as twelve hundred feet. In Shemore Glen I have
seen male birds nse from the heath among the rocks,
and, wheeling round, direct their flight down the valley
with extraordinary speed. Very different indeed is the
flight of these strong-wmged natives of the glen from
that of overfed birds in wooded preserves; and as one
bird after another shoots past in high air, one can hardly
resist the impression that, if left to its own selection, the
pheasant would adapt itself wonderfully to the drawbacks
of its adopted country. Mr. Elwes informs me that he has
frequently seen pheasants in Islay get up m the most unlikely
places, such as an open moor, miles away from any covert or
cornfield, and sometimes in a wet bog, where one would be
more likely to find a snipe. On that island, where it was
introduced about thirty years ago by Mr. Campbell, the
pheasant is now not uncommon, and appears to be on the
increase. In the outer Hebrides it has likewise been
introduced into Lewis by Sir James Matheson, who has
obligingly informed me that, since its introduction twelve or
fifteen years ago, it has become fairly established, although it
has not increased to the extent that might have been expected
in a more favourable locality. ‘The deep drains in the peat
moss, writes Sir James, ‘ are supposed to be the cause of the
death of the young chicks by their falimg into them. For some
years at first there was a want of covert for pheasants, but they
are now better off in this respect, and are increasing gradually.
Some of the first brood wandered about sixteen miles to the
west side of the island, it is supposed in quest of covert.’ ”

fod

In Scotland and Ireland. ori

The introduction of the pheasant into the northern
districts of Scotland is, however, of comparatively recent
date, for in the sixth edition of Mowbray’s ‘ Domestic
Poultry,” 1830, it is stated: “In 1826, a solitary cock
pheasant made his appearance as far north as a valley of
the Grampians, being the first that had been seen in that
northern region’; and my old friend, Andrew Halliday, told
me that he remembered perfectly the introduction of these
birds into the coverts near Banff belonging to the Earl of Fife,
in which locality Thomas Edwards, the Scottish naturalist,
whose life has been so graphically written by Mr. Smiles,
tells us it now seems to thrive very well, and is a beautiful
ornament to parks and woods.

Messrs. Buckley and Harvie-Brown, in the “ Fauna of
the Orkney Islands,” relate several unsuccessful attempts to
introduce pheasants as wild birds into Orkney, which was
only to be expected, as there are no trees.

In [reland it is also abundant, the common species being,
according to Mr. Thompson, the well-known natural historian
of the island, frequent in the various wooded parts, at least
where it has been protected and preserved. “* In the counties
of Antrim and Down,” remarks this writer, “ the rmg-necked
variety—considered to have originally proceeded from a cross
between the common and true ring-necked pheasant (P.
torquatus)—is not uncommon.”

On the continent of Europe the pheasant is widely diffused
throughout almost all the congenial localities in the south and
central portions, where any effort is made in favour of its
protection. In Scandinavia its introduction was at first
unsuccessful. In 1867 Mr. L. Lloyd, in his ‘‘ Game Birds in
Sweden and Norway,” stated that it was not found, although
attempts on a large scale had been made to introduce it by the
late King Oscar ; but from the severity of the climate, and from
the country swarming with vermin and birds of prey of all
sorts, the experiment, in Mr. Lloyd’s opinion, was not likely
to be attended with success. Since that date the attempt

38 Distribution.

has been successfully made by Baron Osear Dickson, who,
in 1873, reared seven or eight hundred birds. These did well,
for in the Morgenblad of November 10, 1877, it is recorded
that ‘* Mr. (now Baron) Oscar Dickson and party shot in one
day, on his property, Bokedal, in Sweden, ninety pheasants,
one deer, one hare, and one woodcock. ‘there were five
guns.” And the same journal mentions that a brace of
pheasants lived at full liberty on an estate in the neighbour-
hood of Christiania during the winter of 1876-7 without being
fed or taken care of, and that in the summer of 1877 they
reared four full-grown young ones. A brace more were let
loose early in the spring of the same year, and also hatched
and reared in the open. The first brace escaped from a pen
and nobody knew what had become of them. It was supposed
that they were either frozen to death during the severe winter,
had died of starvation, or had fallen an easy prey to foxes,
cats, or hawks. But they survived, and found both shelter
and food for themselves. Since that date they mereased
rapidly, and on November 14 and 15, 1893, the Crown Prince
shot over the Baron’s preserves on the Island Wisings6, in the
Wetter Lakes, when 1548 pheasants were killed by six
guns.

In New Zealand, the Great Britain of the southern
hemisphere, the introduction of the pheasant has been a
great success ; so much so that in a single season, that of 1871,
six thousand birds were bagged in the immediate neighbour-
hood of the city of Auckland. Pheasants were first introduced
into the province of Auckland about thirty years since, seven
males and two females, the only survivors of two dozen
shipped in China, comprising the original stock of the
Chinese species. At the same time a number of the Common
species were liberated in another part of the colony. These
were supplemented by six more Chinese birds in 1856. Both
species have multiplied exceedingly, but their multiplication
has im many places been lessened by the employment of
phosphorised oats laid down to poison the rabbits.

Overseas. 39

The pheasant has also been introduced into several of the
islands of the Pacific. By the kindness of Lieut. C. de
Crespigny, of H.M.S. Curagoa, I received a specimen of the
pheasant breeding in the Samoan Islands. This pheasant is
undoubtedly of the Chinese ring-necked species, the neck
being nearly surrounded by the distinguishing white collar,
but there is a considerable difference in the colour of the neck
at the base and the scapular feathers, which are much lighter
than in our ordinary species.

The Chinese pheasant was introduced by the Portuguese
into the island of St. Helena in the year 1513, and has
increased in numbers to a very considerable extent; but
the present representatives of the original stock differ some-
what from their ancestors, both in the colour and markings
of the plumage, as is described in the chapter on that
species.

Very successful attempts have been made to imtroduce
the different species of pheasants into North America as game
birds, where in many parts they have become thoroughly
acclimatised. The original stocks from whence the pheasants
in the Western States are descended were imported direct
from China, consequently the ring-necked pheasant (P.
torquatus) is common in localities where the old English
pheasant (P. colchicus) is almost unknown, although the latter
has been introduced into the Eastern States on the Atlantic
sea-board.

The earliest recorded attempt at introduction was made
by Richard Bache more than a century ago. He imported
birds from England and liberated them on his estate in
New Jersey, but, in spite of every care in feeding and pro-
tecting them, none survived the ensuing winter. A second
attempt, made some years later in the same State, had a
precisely similar ending. Subsequently Robert Oliver, of
Harewood, Baltimore, turned out, on different estates, a con-
siderable stock bred from imported birds, but though some
of these did well for a time they ultimately disappeared.

AO Distribution.

In spite, however, of these initial failures, efforts to
acclimatise the pheasant continued to be made and finally
succeeded ; so much so, that in recent vears breeding has been
extensively pursued in the United States, until it eventually
assumed the dimensions of a new industry, the experiments
ranging from a few pairs to undertakings in which thousands
of birds are kept, and the united efforts of private individuals,
associations, and State game officials led to a very large
increase in the stock of pheasants.

The severity of the winters in some of the States may
account for many of the failures. In others the climate and
conditions are more favourable, and this would appear to be
specially the case in Oregon, where excellent results have
been achieved. In 1880 and 1881 consignments of ring-neck
pheasants from Shanghai were made by the Hon. O. N. Denny,
the U.S.A. consul there. These were liberated in Oregon,
where their increase was so remarkably rapid that on the
opening day of the shooting season in 1892 50,000
were reported to have been bagged. It was from the
Oregon pheasantries that many other States obtained their
stocks.

Massachusetts, after encountering many difficulties, has now
a fair number of birds in its preserves. Similar efforts were
made in Ohio, but, though successful for a time, the impres-
sion has gained ground that the climate is unsuitable, and
they have been relinquished. An outbreak of “ cholera,”
probably identical with our enteritis, which occurred in
July, 1901, conduced to this. A similar epidemic broke out
in 1906 in Massachusetts, but 3,000 birds were shot in the
succeeding open season of one month.

In New York State rearing has not been very successful,
but a State game preserve has been established where breeding
will be resumed. In Indiana it is estimated that the stock of
pheasants numbers from 6,000 to 8,000, In Illinois experi-
ments have been conducted on a large scale, 20,000 eggs
being distributed, in addition to 15,000 hatched on the game

In America. 4]

farm, in 1908. In Utah a stock of rimg-necks liberated in
1895 were reported as doing very well in 1906. In Minnesota
an attempt, made in 1905, to introduce pheasants was rendered
abortive owing to great mortality amongst the chicks. In
Delaware, too, the attempt ended in failure, but Kansas has
been more successful, 3,000 ring-necks, turned down in 1906,
being reported to have done well. Many have been liberated
in Colorado in recent years with results that are not yet
accurately known.

It is possible that in many cases failure may be attributable
to a want of experience in the management of the birds, as
well as to climatic influences and the prevalence of natural
enemies. English gamekeepers have been employed in some
instances, in others American methods are adopted. On the
whole, the conditions that prevail in British Columbia and the
States of the Pacific Coast appear to be more favourable
to their propagation than those found east of the Rocky
Mountains. ‘Thus, in Vancouver Island and some of the Gulf
Islands pheasants have become so numerous that complaints
are said to have been made of the mischief they effect in grain
and potato fields ; but the farmers generally speak favourably
of them.

In Oregon, too, they have spread and multiplied so well
that complaints are made of their depredations in the grain
fields. The reports of the residents to the official inquiries
are very interesting. Mr. Tyler, of Forest Grove, Oregon,
writing in January, 1889, states :

“The females produce fifteen to eighteen eggs in each
brood, and hatch them all. . . . The old ones have lots of
nerve, and will fight a hawk or anything that comes near
them. ‘The cocks will go into a barnyard and whip the best
fowls we have, and run things according to their own notion.

Their favourite haunts are low grounds near the fields
of grain, on which they depredate. . . . The golden
pheasants have become numerous. Occasionally one is seen
in our vicinity, about ninety miles from where they were

42 Distribution.

turned loose four years ago; they are hardy, easily domesti-
cated, but not so prolific as the rmg-necks. Their flesh is
white and tender.”

In the Eastern States the pheasants are in certain localities
doing very well; as many as a thousand birds have been
reared and turned out by a single keeper, and the pheasant
is generally regarded as the future game bird of the country,
as it is able to withstand very considerable variations of
temperature. A number of game clubs have been formed for
their protection, and large numbers are raised in the Long
Island and other preserves. The Game Commissioners of
various states are encouraging their breeding, and, to quote
the words of the Boston Herald, ‘‘ the outlook for the hand-
somest and most delicious game bird in the world is quite
rosy in this country.”

In Nova Scotia the pheasant was introduced thirty years
ago by Professor Butler, and at once bred freely and flourished
in the open, despite of the winter cold of the climate.

In the countries nearest to the locality from whence the
common pheasant is supposed to have been derived, it is
not, strange to say, abundant ; thus Canon Tristram informs
us that it does not appear to be known in Syria. In
Greece, the Hon. ‘I’. L. Powys (afterwards Lord Julford),
writing in The Ibis, states that “‘ The only localities in which
I have seen pheasants in these parts were once on the Luro
river, near Prevesa, in March, 1857. on which occasion I only
saw one, the bird having never previously been met with in
that part of the country ; and again in December of the same
year, in the forests near the mouth of the River Drin, in
Albania, where it is comparatively common, and where several
fell to our guns. In this latter locality, the pheasant’s habitat
seems to be confined to a radius of from twenty to thirty miles
to the north, east, and south of the town of Alessio—a district
for the most part densely wooded and well watered, with
oceasional tracts of cultivated ground, Indian corn being
apparently the principle produce, and forming, with the

In Southern Europe. 43

berries of the privet (which abounds throughout Albania)
the chief food of the present species. We heard many more
pheasants than we saw, as the woods were thick and of
great extent, our dogs wild, and we lost a great deal of time
in making circuits to cross or avoid the numerous small but
deep streams which intersect the country in every direction,
This species is particularly abundant on the shores of the
Gulf of Salonica, about the mouth of the river Vardar; and
I have been informed, on good authority, that pheasants are
also to be found in the woods of Vhrakori, in A®tolia, about
midway between the gulfs of Lepanto and Arta.” With
regard to the present distribution of the species, Mr. Gould,
in his “ Birds of Asia,” states that the late Mr. G. T. Vigne
shot it in a wild state at the Lake of Apollonia, thirty-five miles
from Broussa, to the south of the Sea of Marmora, and that
the late Mr. Atkinson found it on the Kezzil-a-Gatch and the
country to the west of the river Ilia. Mr. C. G. Danford, in
his notes on the ornithology of Asia Minor, writes: ‘‘ The
English Consul, Mr. Gilbertson, informed us that pheasants,
though generally becoming scarce, were still common near
Lake Apollonia, where a couple of guns had last year killed
over sixty head in two or three days’ shooting.”” (Ibis, 1880,
p- 98.)

Lord Lilford, writing in 1895, states: ‘‘ The only country
in which we have personally met with it in an unpreserved
and perfectly wild state is on the shores of the Adriatic, near
Alessio, in Albania, where it is, or was, by no means
uncommon in the low-lying forest country near the mouth of
the river Drin; it is also to be found in considerable numbers
near Salonica and in certain other localities in European
Turkey. But the best authorities seem to agree that the true
home and headquarters of the species are the shores of the
Caspian, the valleys of the Caucasus, and Northern Asia Minor.
Very closely allied forms, however, are to be met with from
the Caspian, through Asia, to the shores and islands of
China.”

44. Distribution.

The late Professor H. H. Giglioli, writing of Corsica,
remarked : “I was repeatedly assured of the presence in the
island, among the hills of Aleria on the eastern coast, of the
pheasant Phasianus colchicus in a perfectly wild condition.
I see that Mr. Jesse reports the same thing. . . . I am
still making inquiries on the subject ; but, as far as I can see,
no record of its introduction by man is forthcoming.” (Lbas,
April, 1881.)

: Zz F« Va XN

CHAPTER IIT.

Management of Pheasants in Preserves.
Formation of Coverts.

EFORE any satisfactory progress can be made in the
preservation of pheasants, the existence of good and well-
protected coverts is indispensable ; and where these do not

naturally exist, the very first action of the game preserver must
be to effect their plantation on a scale commensurate with his
desires. This necessarily cannot be done without expense, but a
large stock of pheasants cannot be secured, save under the most
exceptional circumstances, without a very considerable outlay.

Some years since the subject of the formation of coverts
for pheasants was discussed in a very exhaustive manner in
the columns of the Field, and some admirable practical letters,
detailing the experiences of the writers, appeared in that
paper ; these are worthy of the most attentive consideration,
and I have great pleasure in availing myself of the oppor-
tunity of quoting from them. One of the most practical of
the writers, the late Mr. R. Carr Ellison, of Dunston Hill,
Durham, strongly advocated the formation of pheasant
roosts of spruce and silver firs, as affording the birds absolute
security against the attacks of night poachers. He writes:
“A number of country gentlemen who do not consider field
sports of primary importance, feel it right to abstain from the
preserving of pheasants. They see that the temptation
which these birds offer, when perched upon naked larches and
other trees, at night, is too strong to be resisted by many
a lad or working-man in the vicinity, who, but for this parti-
cular allurement to evil, might go on respectably and quietly
enough. They know that their duty towards their own sons
is to keep them out of needless temptations, and they are

46 Formation of Coverts.

unwilling to expose the sons of other and poorer men to trials
which experience shows they too often cannot resist. Some
have forbidden all night watching of these birds, trusting
them entirely to the protection of the pines and firs scattered
in their plantations, in the branches of which it is impossible
for anyone to see the pheasants which happen to select them
as a roosting-place. Now I have for twenty-two years pre-
served these birds in very considerable numbers without any
night watching, and in a country where all my neighbours
have been repeatedly visited by gangs of poachers, coming
sometimes from considerable distances, as well as by occasional
depredators of the vicinity. I resolved to reject all night
watching, and one of the first things that I did, as a very young
man, was to plant ten acres of spruce fir and Scotch pine in
a central and sheltered part of the estate, which might serve
as an impregnable roosting-place for pheasants. This was
thirty years ago and more. At ten years of age the plantation
was already of great service, and at fifteen was invaluable.
As it has been regularly thinned, it is now as good as ever.
A number of birch-trees were intermixed, which were very
useful in drawing up and hastening the growth of the spruces
without exhausting the soil, as too great a multitude of firs
would have done. Nor do the pheasants resort to the birch
at night as they do to some other trees, larch especially,
because they find that its branches are not sufficiently
horizontal to afford commodions perches.

“Ten years later I formed a second pheasant-roost of two
acres in extent, very near my house, and of this I have had
the full benefit for many years past. It is generally full of
pheasants, and not one of them is visible to the keenest eye in
the clearest moonlight. It consists of spruce and silver fir,
regularly and unsparingly thinned to keep the trees in health
and vigour. We never think of night watching, even though
guns be heard on adjoining estates, and the poachers have
long given us up in despair. This lesser stronghold is kept
sacred from the guns of sportsmen, who are sure to find the

Planting Spruce. AT

cock pheasants dispersed through all the other plantations
during the daytime. The first thing the birds do on a winter’s
morning, after pecking up a few beans near their roost, is to
wander in search of their natural wild food in the woodlands,
of which food the tuberous root of the celandine, or wood-
ranunculus, forms here a principal part. But, besides the
remains of acorns and beech-nuts, they feed, I believe, much
on the fallen keys of the ash and sycamore, on hips and haws,
and on tender blades of grass, besides innumerable worms,
eggs of slugs, and larve of insects. Tempted by these
dainties, and in frosty weather even by the crisp green
leaves of the holly, the cock pheasant will leave his beans
and barley, and betake himself to freer haunts every fine
day, and there the sportsman will find him; but, if his life
be spared, he seldom fails to return at night to his warm
roost among the spruces; only with the advance of spring
will he quit it, for habit has made him luxurious as to his
night’s quarters, and more sensitive of cold than less lucky
pheasants.

“The Scotch pine is not nearly so tempting to the
pheasant at night as the spruce and silver firs, because its
branches are not sufficiently horizontal; yet, on dry hungry
soils it must be largely intermixed, since the firs are not to be
depended on to flourish on such ground. In some cases a
stronghold may be formed entirely of hollies, Portugal laurels,
and yews. For hen pheasants it will be excellent; but the
cocks, which prefer to roost higher, should have a few firs or
pines close at hand for their accommodation. All food should
be given in or near to these secure nocturnal retreats.”

Respecting the conversion of existing mixed plantations
into night coverts for pheasants, the same gentleman remarks
that “ any plantation containing a due proportion of pinés, or
of spruce and silver fir, can be readily made a secure roosting-
place for pheasants, if conveniently situated for the purpose,
and not too much exposed to violent winds. All that is
necessary is to cut out the larches as rapidly as can be done

4S Formation of Coverts.

without letting in the wind too suddenly. The oaks, ashes,
beeches, etce., may be allowed to stand wherever they do not
injure a thriving pine or fir. ‘The larches only are a dangerous
temptation to the pheasants at roosting time. Their perfectly
horizontal branches, and the considerable amount of shelter
which their numerous twigs and regular head afford to the
birds, induce many to perch in them; whereas young oaks,
ashes, etc., attract very few indeed. If the plantation
consisted entirely of resinous trees, so that none of the
last-mentioned hardwood trees are present, then we have
to consider what is to be done to fill up the vacancies. If
the soil be tolerably moist and fertile, I would recommend
that all the larger openings be filled with the best and
strongest plants of silver fir that can be procured—say from
two to three feet in height. Let a cluster of three or more
of these be planted in pits, carefully prepared with spade and
pickaxe, about five feet asunder, in the centre of every
opening; for it is a pity to waste such plants in closer
proximity to tall pines and spruces. If there be room for
only one silver fir, let only one be planted. This species is
not very liable to be nibbled by hares and rabbits if protected
for the first year. Let the branches of the felled larches,
with which the ground must still be half covered, be drawn
around these young plants without delay, for very little will
suffice to turn the enemy aside.

‘Silver firs are very preferable to spruces or pines for
filling up vacancies, for these latter, when drawn up slender
by shade and shelter, are sure to be ruimed by hares and
rabbits, whereas the silver fir is of a different habit and will
not be drawn up in the same manner, nor is its taste so
attractive to the marauders. It also bears bemg removed
large from the nursery, with very little injury or check to its
srowth. Consequently large plants of it, with earth adhering,
though somewhat costly, are well worth their price to the
planter who knows where and how to use them. Around
these, and nearer to the tall pines and spruces, may be tried

Trees for Roosting. 49

plants of the holly-leaved berberis and common laurel, which
may not improbably succeed. Immediately under the pines
and spruces it is useless to plant anything. The only covert
to be obtained there is from heaps of branches left upon the
ground as often as the trees are thinned. And this should
be done almost annually, to ensure plenty of room to the best
and most thriving amongst them, whose side branches will
then gradually become more or less pendulous, and go will
afford far more shelter than could be obtained from a larger
number of trees standing too thick. Pheasants in a covert
like this need no great quantity of shelter upon the ground,
for they sit, even during the daytime, chiefly in the tree-tops.
They bask there, on the south side of the summit of a spruce
or pine, in the sun’s rays, with great delight ; and in heavy
snowstorms whole days will often pass when they never
descend to feed, but prefer to sit quiet, eating the green
spines of these resinous trees (in the manner of the black
grouse and capercailzie) when crispened by the frost and
depending upon snow by way of beverage. I have strongly
advocated the spruce and silver firs as affording the most
tempting perch to the birds at mghtfall; still, be it under-
stood, that the Scotch pine, pimaster, Weymouth pine
(P. laricio), and others are all excellent. All that is needed
is a little generalship and foresight in pheasant preservers,
and a determination to confide in these resources, rather
than im the expensive, dangerous, and inefficient practice
of employing night watchers.”

Commenting on these suggestions, another correspondent
writes: “I am not aware that the practical advantages and
excellence of the plan of planting large clumps or squares of
spruce, either alone or blended with silver firs, and mixing, or
not, a few deciduous trees with them, for the special purpose
of forming pheasant roosts, have ever been so fully and
perspicuously set forth as explained in the previous article.
I could quote an instance of extensive coverts having been

planted on a similar principle, save that oaks were planted in
E

50 Formation of Coverts.

licu of birch, with the ultimate view of affording these birds
the opportunity of preening their plumes whilst perched on
the topmost boughs, and enjoying themselves in this secluded
retreat during bright weather, to which luxury, under such
circumstances, they are very partial. In these cases the
Spanish chestnut tree might sometimes perhaps be found an
eligible substitute for either the birch or the oak. The larch
undoubtedly is a favourite roosting tree with the pheasant, so
much so indeed that I have seen odd ones roosting in larches
growing within a few yards only of the impenetrable spruce
grove. Besides being horizontal, the branches of the larch
are rough, affording good foothold, and when the tree is
properly grown are but at short distances one above the
other, whilst, the collaterals being numerous, the tree in
reality affords far more shelter than it appears capable of
yielding, though, of course, far too little to conceal the bird
from the prying eye of the mght poacher.

‘‘ Pheasants are remarkably fond of ‘hips’ ; and if the wild
rose tree which produces them be kept low by a proper atten-
tion to pruning, not only can the birds reach the fruit easily,
but the branches stool out and afford admirable covert. Cock
pheasants are naturally of a vagrant turn, and at times will
‘leave their beans and barley,’ in order to indulge in this
their favourite propensity to rove in search of their natural
wild food in the woods and hedges. On one occasion, early in
December, I received a brace of remarkably fine young cock
pheasants shot on a manor where the best artificial food is
abundantly provided, yet the crop of one of them contained ten
full-sized acorns. Apart, too, from their utility as being by far
the warmest, most sheltered, and the only thoroughly poacher-
proof night coverts for these timid birds, which at roosting
time usually court the densest sylvan shade—-these evergreen
groves possess the signal advantage of harmonising well with, and
adding singular beauty to, the surrounding scenery ; whilst the
internal gloom—lucus a non lucendo—pervading them has also
its own peculiar charms, though it be of a sombre character.”

Plants of Value. 51

It may be remarked that evergreen night coverts are not
so essential south of the Trent, owimg to the vigorous growth
of underwood in the southern counties, which renders it
almost impossible for poachers to traverse the coverts by
night, even during bright moonlight ; so that pheasants
roosting on deciduous trees are much safer than they would
be in the north, where underwood is comparatively feeble and
scanty.

Writing to me on this subject. Mr. Carr Ellison added:
“In the extreme north of England, and in Scotland, under-
wood of bramble grows feebly, except along warm southerly
slopes. Nevertheless Nature introduces another covert plant
of great value, which fears neither cold shade, nor open and
windy exposure—namely. the native tussock grass of moor-
edges and upland pastures, Aira cwspitosa, popularly called
‘ bull-fronts, of which most of our exposed woodlands are
full. It is easily transplanted or propagated by seed, on
which latter both pheasants and black game feed. It is a
favourite covert for hares, affording perfect protection from
the cold winds that sweep through plantations destitute of
underwood, like too many in the north.

“Yet these apparently unpromising strips or elumps of
bare stems are often frequented by fine broods of self-reared
pheasants, thanks to the bull-fronts and bracken.”

If it be desired to see the pheasants in the neighbourhood
of the mansion, it should be borne in mind that the shrub-
beries of rhododendron so frequently seen skirting lawns and
pleasure grounds are not frequented by pheasants like those
of yew, holly, and privet, chiefly because no fallen berries are
to be found underneath them. But if a handful of barley,
peas, or beans be thrown from time to time among the more
open and taller rhododendrons, the pheasants will soon learn
to resort to them, after which some of the same fare may be
cast into the thicker parts, where the birds will soon find it. In
this way our beautiful rhododendron thickets near the garden and

mansion may be utilised for pheasants more than heretofore.
E 2

Formation of Coverts.

Or
ew

Charles Waterton, who protected every bird in his York-
shire domain, published the following details of his method
of preserving the pheasants at Walton Hall :—“ This bird has
a capacious stomach and requires much nutriment, while its
timidity soon causes it to abandon those places which are
disturbed. It is fond of acorns, beech-mast, the berries of
the hawthorn, the seeds of the wild rose, and the tubers of
the Jerusalem artichoke. As long as these and the corm
dropped in the harvest can be procured, the pheasant will
do very well. In the spring it finds abundance of nourish-
ment in the sprouting leaves of young clover; but from the
commencement of the New Year till the vernal period their
wild food affords a very scanty supply, and the bird will be
exposed to all the evils of the Vagrant Act, unless you can
contrive to keep it at home by an artificial supply of food.
Boiled potatoes (which the pheasant prefers much to those in
the raw state) and beans are, perhaps, the two most nourishing
things that can be offered in the depth of winter. Beans in
the end are cheaper than all the smaller kinds of grain,
because the little birds, which usually swarm at the place
where pheasants are fed, cannot swallow them: and if you
conceal the beans under yew or holly bushes or under the
lower branches of the spruce fir tree, they will be out of the
way of the rooks and ringdoves. About two roods of the
thousand-headed cabbage are a most valuable acquisition to
the pheasant preserve. You sow a few ounces of seed in
April, and transplant the young plants 2ft. asunder in the
month of June. By the time that the harvest is all in, these
cabbages will afford a most excellent aliment to the pheasant,
and are particularly serviceable when the ground is deeply
covered with snow. I often think that pheasants are
unintentionally destroyed by farmers during the autumnal
seed-time. They have a custom of steeping the wheat in
arsenic water. ‘This must be injurious to birds which pick
up the corn remaining on the surface of the mould. I some-
times find pheasants, at this period, dead in the plantations,

Pheasants and Poachers. 33

and now and then take them up weak and languid, and quite
unable to fly. I will mention here a little robbery by the
pheasants which has entirely deprived me of a gratification
I used formerly to experience in an evening’s saunter down
the vale. They have completely exterminated the grass-
hoppers. For the last fourteen years I have not once heard
the voice of this merry summer charmer in the party.

“In order to render useless all attempts of the nocturnal
poacher to destroy the pheasants, it is absolutely necessary
that a place of security should be formed. I know of no
position more appropriate than a piece of level ground at the
bottom of the hill, bordered by a gentle stream. About three
acres of this, sowed with whins and surrounded by a_ holly
fence to keep the cattle out, would be the very thing. In the
centre of it, for the space of one acre, there ought to be planted
spruce fir trees, about 14ft. asunder. Next to the larch, this
species of tree is generally preferred by the pheasants for
their roosting-place ; and it is quite impossible that the
poachers can shoot them in these trees. Moreover, magpies
and jays will always resort to them at nightfall; and they
never fail to give the alarm on the first appearance of an
enemy. Six or seven dozen of wooden pheasants nailed on
the branches of trees in the surrounding woods cause
unutterable vexation and loss of ammunition to these
amateurs of nocturnal plunder. Small clumps of hollies and
yew trees, with holly hedges round them, are of infinite
service when planted at intervals of one hundred and_ fifty
yards. ‘To these the pheasants fly on the sudden approach of
danger during the day, and skulk there till the alarm is
over.” It is sometimes desirable to supply the want of
ground covert for young birds in fir plantations where
there is only short grass. The readiest mode of doing this is
to use the trimmings of hedges, boughs, and tops of trees ;
the latter should be cut about a yard long and stuck in
holes made with a crowbar. The high grass soon grows in
amongst the sticks and makes very good ground covert,

D4. Formation of Coverts.

which will last some years; or the roots of young spruce
trees may be cut on one side, when the trees may be pulled
down into a nearly horizontal position, and kept so by filling
up the hole with the earth dug out.

ING OR OV DOOKYCANCA SG
WH OA

AIL Ss SMa
ONION AG NO TAGNOOZS

D

CHAPTER IV.

Feeding in Coverts.

Be food necessary to keep together a large stock
of pheasants during the winter months, and prevent
them straying to adjoining preserves, may be supplied
in various modes. The birds may either be hand-fed day by
day in the same manner as domestic fowls; or from troughs
which are so constructed as to prevent the food being acces-
sible to smaller birds ; or they may be supplied with small
stacks of unthrashed corn, from which to help themselves.

If fed by hand, a fixed place is necessary, to which the
pheasants must be accustomed to resort at a particular hour,
otherwise the sparrows and other small birds will have far
more than their fair share of the grain, particularly in severe
weather when the ground is frozen hard. Fed in this manner,
the birds become almost as tame as farmyard fowls. In
order to accustom them to one spot, at the end of September
or earlier, according to the season, carry a few bundles of
beans and barley, in the straw, to the spots in the coverts
which are selected for feeding-places; by watching these
bundles it will soon be found when they have attracted the
notice of the birds, and when it is observed that they have
been attacking them, the better plan is to pull them apart, so
as to enable the corn to be found more readily. When the
corn is beginning to decrease, feed from the hand daily ; and
in order to ensure regularity, allow one man to distribute at
the feeding-place, among the decaying barley-straw and
beanhaulm, a small bagful of beans and barley, as early as
he can find his way to the spot in the morning, concealing
the corn as well as he is able; later in the day, say towards
three or four in the afternoon, again deposit a mixture of

56 Feeding in Coverts.

barley and white peas, concealing the corn as before. In this
way scarcely a grain of corn is lost. Woodpigeons and jays
will sometimes intrude ; but, with attention in concealing the
corn and punctuality in feeding, any waste worth notice may
be prevented, and by observing how many birds come up to
their food it is easy to discover when anything is going wrong,
as the least disturbance will make pheasants shy, and will
be enough to put the keeper on the alert to discover the cause.

When fed by hand in this manner, a great variety of food
may be used. Maize is certainly one of the best ; weight
for weight it is usually much cheaper than barley, is better
relished by the pheasants, is far more fattening, and it
possesses the great recommendation of not being so readily
devoured by the sparrows, especially if the large, coarse, and
cheaper varieties are purchased. A correspondent, who has
kept pheasants for many years, and taken much trouble to
ascertain their preference for different kinds of food, states,
as a result of his experience, that “they prefer maize or
Indian corn to any other food that can be given to them.
I have frequently given the pheasants that come regularly to
my window to be fed equal parts of Indian corn, peas, small
horse-beans, wheat, barley, and oats, and they invanably take
them in the order in which I have written them. I have also
frequently done the same thing with those I keep shut up for
laying, and always with the same results. Pheasants that
T have had from elsewhere to put with them in confinement,
and that have never seen maize, take to it in a couple of days,
and then, like the others, will eat nothing else so long as
they can get it; and if I try them with the mixture above
named I find all the other grain neglected. The young
pheasants at the coops begin to eat it before they are as
large as partridges, and then entirely neglect the barley, &e.
I never see pheasants that are kept up in better condition
than my own, and they have nothing but Indian corn, a few
turnip leaves, and clods of turf to pull to pieces. Another
great advantage of maize is that small birds cannot steal it,

Maize. 57

with the exception of the tom-tit, and though almost the
smallest, he holds the corn with one foot and hammers away
like a miniature woodpecker, commencing at the part of the
grain that is attached to the stalk, finding that the only road
in. It is but a very small part of each corn that he is able to
eat, but it seems to possess great attraction for him. ‘There
are six or eight of these little birds living constantly near my
house at this season ; and though chaffinches, blackbirds, and
thrushes all try their best at the maize, they soon give it up
hopelessly. Rooks take it greedily, and were it not for an
occasional ball from the air gun they would rob the pheasants
of every grain.”

In feeding pheasants in this manner, care should be taken
to change the ground frequently, for if they are fed on the
same place for too long a time the ground becomes tainted,
the food is necessarily soiled by the excrements of the birds,
and disease is the invariable result.

Feeding troughs, which open with the weight of the
pheasant when standing on an attached bar in front of the
corn, are not extensively used. The objections to them are,
in the first place, their expense, which becomes a serious
item when many are required; their lability to get out of
order ; and, lastly, the unlimited supply they afford to the
feeding bird, which crams itself to repletion without any
exercise, and is disinclined to seek food on its own account.

Unquestionably one of the best modes of feeding pheasants
is by the use of small stacks of unthreshed grain or beans :
but this may be done in a wrong as well as a right manner.
The late Mr. W. Lort, an enthusiastic practical sportsman,
made the following suggestions: “‘ Pheasants may be easily
fed from small thatched stacks made with bundles of different
kinds of grain. The only operation then required—pulling a
bundle or two from the stack and cutting the bands—may be
performed every two or three days; though, by the way, I
must say I hke someone to see my pheasants every day, and
those who want game will find it to their interest to have it

5S Feeding in Covert.

well attended to. If weight and bulk are objects, a foot or
two of the straw can be cut from each sheaf or bundle of
corn before it is taken to the stacks. The ears should be
put inside, or half the corn will be taken by small birds ; and
the bottom of the stack should stand at least a foot from the
ground. I use as food in winter, peas, beans, barley, buck-
wheat, wheat, and a few oats, and many other little delicacies
such as boiled potatoes, ground artichokes, decayed apples,
damaged raisins, ete.; and with all these dainties, they will
stray twice in the year—when the acorns fall and at or just
before breeding-time.”

The following most complete series of suggestions on
feeding pheasants in coverts is from the pen of Mr. James
Barnes, of Exmouth. It is specially valuable as giving
practical directions for the formation of catchpools for
water, without which no amount of feeding will keep pheasants
from straying in dry weather ; and it also contains suggestions
for the formation of huts, which are worthy of the careful
consideration of every preserver on a large scale. Mr. Barnes
writes: ‘‘ Pheasants are well-known to require assistance
with food of some kind in winter to keep them in good
condition, and to have a propensity to ramble away and
expose themselves to the depredations of trespassers. Buck-
wheat should be sown adjacent to their coverts, cut when
ripe and intermixed with barley, also in straw, and placed in
little stacks in or near their coverts, and spread or shaken
about at intervals throughout the winter. What is still
better, to my mind, is to place their food in huts. A pheasant
hut is an open shed with the roof fixed on four posts, with a
pole all round for rafter plate, the rafters of rough poles tied
on with withies, thatched first with long faggots tied up
with three or four withies of brushwood with all the leaves
on, and allowed to hang down or over the rafter plate
two feet or thereabouts. The thatch used should be small
brushwood, reeds, or straw. An open trellis floor of poles
should be raised two feet from the ground, and on this

Pheasant Huts. 59

the corn in straw should be laid for the pheasants to
help themselves. In these huts the pheasants find shelter,
comfort, and cover in rough, wintry, and severe weather.
Care should be taken to have plenty of dry dust on the floor
underneath for the pheasants to bask in. This is a most
essential provision—quite as much so for pheasants as for our
poultry—for it is quite as natural for them to dust to clean
themselves. It is a fact within easy observation how the
pheasant searches out the base of an old, dry, dusty pollard
tree or hedge bank to bask in the dust. Besides, every
grain of corn that falls through the open feeding floor is
searched for and found in this dust. Underneath and on
the dusty floor is a safe and convenient place, sheltered from
severe frosts, etc., to receive any other kind of food, such
as refuse potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes, mangolds, swede
turnips, cabbage, Spanish chestnuts, acorns, beechnuts, a
few raisins, Indian corn, or anything else you wish the
pheasants to have. Such changes of food cast about
their feeding sheds are sure to secure them keeping
pretty well to covert, particularly if they have water at
hand. I have seen large expenditures for well digging
or for the conveyance of water by ram and pipes from
some stream at a distance; but the best and simplest
plan to keep up a general supply of water for the season
the pheasant is in covert is certainly the shallow catch-
pool system. In my humble opinion, it is the most
natural, convenient, and inexpensive plan of all I have seen
or had anything to do with in my time. I will explain what
I mean by catchpools: Choose any little slope or valley in
high and dry coverts where some command may be had of
the surrounding surface water after rain ; scoop out a hole in
the earth’s surface in the shape of a spoon or bowl, sloping
gradually all round to the centre and deepest part, which
need not be deeper than from eighteen inches to three feet,
according to width and length ; the edges, to admit the water
running into it freely, must be kept a little under the earth’s

60) Feeding in Covert.

natural surface. Then puddle the whole of its face with
six inches of well-wrought clay, paving it with bricks laid
flat, and giving it all over a little coat of Portland cement.
Thus you have a first-class and lasting catchpit to hold water
most of the year, indeed the whole season. Pheasants are
expected to remain in covert for food and safety from September
to February, and then there is certainly always plenty of water.
After February the pheasant likes to go further away, and,
soon after the gun is withdrawn, is pretty sure to get distributed
about in search of insects and various root. Pheasants rove
about quietly during their breeding season, but little is’ seen
or heard of them after April till corn harvest, as they live a
quiet, secluded life through summer. J have made catchpools
by casing them only with puddled clay. One disadvantage of
this is, in a long dry time the water gets low, and the clay
sides becoming exposed, contract, crack, and allow the water
to run to waste if they are not looked to when rain does come.
There is also another way in which I have had catchpools
made where natural gravel abounds, namely, to make it
into concrete, and case the bottom and sides with this only.
It answers well, and saves the labour and expense of getting
bricks from a distance. Every feeder knows that dry barley
and buckwheat in sheaf, and stacked in the vicinity of the
preserves, and some pulled out and shaken about occasionally,
with a change of maize, will keep pheasants in good condition ;
but it does not occur to everyone that a good supply of water
near their feeding ground has a considerable influence on their
habits. After feeding heartily on dry food, they will stray
for water if there be none handy, and will stay away afterwards
till hungry again, thus running the risk of being shot during
their wanderings. ‘To keep pheasants in their own coverts, take
means of making them fond of them, even though there be no
water near I have found Jerusalem artichokes the best means
of attraction. They are so fond of these tubers that they will
hunt them by sight or smell from any obscure corner. Give
them also potatoes (small and large), mangold wurtzel, carrots,

How to Prevent Straying. 61

white-hearted cabbage, and savoys, all of which they. will
readily eat, and which not only prevent their straying for
water, but afford a change of food that is genial and natural
to their taste and well-doing, besides economising their dry
corn food. Where the coverts abound with acorns, beech-mast,
Spanish chestnuts, and groundnuts, the pheasant requires
but little feeding till the middle of December.”

The rainfall may be utilised with advantage for replenishing
the receptacles employed for watering pheasants in coverts,
by the use of sheets of corrugated iron, painted an incon-
spicuous colour. ‘These may be erected in the form of roofing
to a shed of a few feet high, which will also provide shelter
and dry scratching ground for the birds, the rain-water being
run off into the drinking troughs.

The planting of Jerusalem artichokes on waste spots and
coverts will be found to be an exceedingly advantageous mode
of feeding pheasants and preventing their straying from their
own coverts. When once established, these plants readily
reproduce themselves and afford a large amount of food
for the birds. Jor preventing pheasants straying, the use of
raisins scattered in the coverts is particularly advantageous.
They will attract birds even from distant coverts to so great
an extent that the owners of these latter may have to employ
them in their own defence. So attractive are raisins to
pheasants that the birds are not infrequently captured by
poachers by means of a fish hook baited with a raisin and
suspended about the height of a running bird’s head from the
ground.

CHAPTER V.

Protection in Covert.

ITH regard to the rearing of pheasants in
VV, preserves, but little need be said; the less they
are interfered with the better. No good can
possibly come from disturbing the sitting hens, but, on
the other hand,a great amount of mischief may accrue.
When leaving the nest quietly in order to seek food, the hen
does so in such a manner as not to attract the attention of
the numerous enemies, aS crows, magpies, jays, etc., that
are on the watch to discover and devour her eggs ; but driven
off by the prying intrusion of a visitor, she departs without
caution, and makes known the situation of her concealed nest.
The only circumstance warranting any interference with the
nests of the wild birds is the occurrence of a greater number
of eggs than the parent hen is capable of rearing as young
birds, should the whole of them be hatched. A hen pheasant
is rarely seen with more than six or seven young, at least
when they have arrived at any size ; and as she not infrequently
lays a larger number of eggs, it is an advantageous plan to
remove all beyond eight or nine for the purpose of hatching
them under common farmyard hens. Mr. J. Baily, im his
‘Pheasants and Pheasantries,” says that if “‘a keeper knows
of forty nests, seven eggs may be safely spared from each:
this will give two hundred and eighty eggs for tame rearing ” ;
but such a degree of prolificacy in wild pheasants is a higher
average than has ever come under my notice.

Another point of considerable importance with regard to
the breeding of pheasants in preserves is the number of cocks
that should be left in the spring in proportion to the number
of hens. There is no doubt whatever that in a state of nature

Cocks and Hens. 63

pheasants are polygamous, the stronger males driving away
the weaker, and taking possession of several hens to constitute
their seraglios; hence the custom to shoot down most of the
cocks, and leave all the hens, even the oldest to breed. It is
probable that this procedure is frequently carried too far,
and in confirmation of this view I have much pleasure in
quoting Mr. J. D. Dougall, who, in his ‘“‘ Shooting Simplified,”
says: “ It is customary to shoot cock pheasants only, and to
impose a fine upon the sportsmen who break this rule, the money
being escheated to the head keeper, or applied to defray the
expenses of a dinner at the end of the season, when shootings
are rented by a party of gentlemen. ‘This rule is very frequently
overstretched. It should not be forgotten that the desired
end may be frustrated by having too many hens, as well as by
having too few, and in whatever way the disproportion of sexes
is caused, the result—reduction in increase—is the same.
If the cocks are continually killed down, few male birds will
arrive at that complete maturity so essential to producing
a healthy stock. On the other hand, if the hens are continually
spared, they will not only grow out of proportion to the number
of cocks, but the aged hens will beat off the two and three year
old birds. Very old hens should certainly be destroyed.
The most prolific are the two and three year old birds.”

A correspondent, who supports this view, writes: “It is
very certain that in many instances too few cocks are frequently
left in preserved coverts at the end of the season; it is also
notorious that in the neighbourhood of many preserves a nide
of above fourteen birds (and I have known eighteen) is not
infrequently produced from an outlying cock and hen oceupying
some detached covert, and yields the best birds of the season
when the Ist of October arrives. With respect to the propor-
tion of cocks to be left much may be written about it, depending
upon all circumstances connected with the ground under the
entire control of the individual seeking to preserve a given stock
of pheasants. In all cases in my opinion, too much forbearance
is Shown to hens early in the season, and much too little towards

64 Protection in Covert.

cocks at the end. The safe plan, in all cases, is to adapt one
or two small coverts, as much in the centre of your ground as
possible, as feeding places for your stock birds, and before
the middle of December the exact number of birds which by
judicious management you have collected there may be ascer-
tained by a few days’ careful observation. With attention
and the greatest forbearance towards these (no old cocks
being left among their number), you may kill freely elsewhere,
and insure to your friends and yourself plenty of sport the
following season from them and their progeny.”

With regard to the proportion of sexes to be left in the
coverts, it is difficult to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion.

One writer states: “It would be to the advantage of pre-
servers of pheasants if they would, before it is too late, refrain
trom shooting the cock birds too close, as most game preservers,
I presume, wish to have as good and numerous a stock of
pheasants as they can for breeding ; and the reason why so
many are disappointed in this respect is for want of more cock
birds. There should be left at least one cock for every three
hens, as eggs then would be more plentiful, the chicks stronger,
and better able to contend with a wet season and the numerous
enemies they have to battle with.” Mr. W. Lort advocated
one cock to five hens.

The frequent occurrence of old barren hens that have
assumed either wholly or in part the plumage of the male is
a proof, if one were wanting, that in many coverts the old
worn out hens are left longer than is desirable or profitable.

The chapters on the “Management of Pheasants in Pre-
serves’ would be imcomplete without the consideration of
the best means of protecting them against their numerous
enemies. ‘The chief four-footed depredators are cats, foxes,
hedgehogs, and stoats. Their other enemies are feathered
and unfeathered. Of these the unfeathered bipeds, known
as poachers, are perhaps the most destructive. By far the
greater number of pheasants purloined by the poacher are
shot at night ; this destruction may be prevented in great part,

A Trick for Poachers. 65

without the necessity for night watching, by having suitable
coverts, as has been already fully explained in the preceding
chapter. Where larches and other trees with exposed horizon-
tal branches abound, recourse should be had to mock pheasants,
which are excessively annoying to poachers, as they cause
them to expend ammunition uselessly and alarm the neigh-
bouring keepers, without any profitable result. Mock pheasants,
quite incapable of being distinguished from the real birds at
night, may be made of hay bands, rushes, or fern bound
with tarred twine or wire on a stick about two feet long.
Capt. Darwin, in his “* Game Preserver’s Manual,” writing of
mock pheasants, states “ they are very easily made, but their
situations should be often varied. Some keepers make them
of board cut into the shape of a pheasant. ‘These are of little
use, for a poacher gets under them and sees at once what they
are. Others make the body of wood roughly turned in a
lathe, and nail a strip of wood on it for a tail, or with real
tail feathers stuck in. The best mode of making mock
pheasants after all is as follows: Get a bunch of long hay and
roll it round a stick till it is the size of a pheasant’s body,
leaying enough for a tail ; wrap it with thin copper wire down
to the end of the tail; cut a peg about six inches long and as
thick asa lead pencil ; wind a bit of hay round the end to make
a head, and run the peg into the body. Tie these imitations
on the branches of larch trees here and there. Pheasants
prefer this kind of-tree to others, in consequence of the boughs
coming out straight, and so allowing them a level surface to
sit on. In woods where there are no foxes, and where the
ground vermin has been well killed down, it is a good plan
(especially if you think it a likely night for poachers) to unroost
the pheasants in the evening. They will not fly up again that
night. If you begin by unroosting the pheasants when they
are young, and have only flown up a few nights, they will take
to roosting on the ground altogether, and never fly up at all.
Pheasants that have not been accustomed to be driven down

at all are made rather shy by the frequent repetition of this
is

66 Protection in Covert.

performance, and it may drive them away. ‘They are very
easily frightened. If you begin shooting rabbits, ete., they will
take the alarm. They cannot stand guns going off constantly
in the coverts where they are.”

Imitation pheasants thus made will only last a single season ;
should anything more permanent be desired, recourse must
be had to those made of wood, which may be cheaply and
efficiently constructed on the following plan. Take a fir

pole, saw it through at an angle of 45° ; this cut, when rounded
off, forms the breast of the bird; a cut at 224° forms the tail-
end. So, by making alternate cuts at 45° and 225°, you may
cut up the pole without waste, as shown in the plan. A cut
lath forms a capital tail, which should be put on nearly perpen-
dicular, as pheasants roost with the tail hanging down; the

ee

head is easily made out of the upper end of the pole, where
too small for the body. Daub over with some oil paint,
bore a large hole in the body for the nail, which is to be driven
into the branch. Place these mock birds pretty thick where
pheasants roost. By boring the hole in the body 1 in. diameter
they will, when placed on a nail, move with the wind, when the
deception is perfect enough, as they are difficult to distinguish
from a pheasant, even in daylight. Whatever kind of mock
pheasant is employed, they should not be placed too near
public roads or footpaths, and in those cases in which they are
liable to observation during the day, they should be moved
frequently.

Alarm guns set in coverts with wires leading in different
directions are most valuable as alarming poachers, and

Alarm Guns. 67

indicating the locality in which they are pursuing their depre-
dations. One of the best, and certainly the cheapest, alarm
guns with which I am acquainted is that devised by Captain
Darwin, and described in his useful manual on Game Preserving,
which has been too long out of print. The author writes:
“T have constructed an alarm gun which combines the
desiderata of cheapness and simplicity more completely than
any I have yet seen. I do not lay claim to the invention of
this gun, but I certainly find I can adopt materials in its con-
struction that will come to a tenth part of the money usually
charged ; in fact, any tolerable mechanic ought to make it in
an hour. It is formed as follows: get a piece of iron gas-pipe,
three inches long and three-quarters bore. At the threaded
end make a plug of iron a quarter of an inch thick, and tapped
in the centre for a nipple. Drive this plug into the barrel,
and braze it. The nipple is then screwed in. Then get a
corresponding piece of the gas-pipe, from two feet six inches
to three feet long, also threaded at the end. Screw the collar
{that always goes along with this sort of gas-pipe) on to the
long piece as tight as it will go. The gun is now complete
with the exception of the hammer, which is a piece of round
iron about a foot long, and slipping easily down the barrel.
To set the gun you must tie the long barrel fast to the stem
of a tree in the plantation, with the short barrel downwards.
Unscrew the latter and load it with a couple of charges of
powder, and put on the cap, which you should cover with some
beeswax and suet mixed. ‘Then screw the short barrel into the
long one. Drill a small hole through the loose piece of iron
about four inches from one end, and put it in the barrel with
a nail or peg in the small hole, and a string from the nail going
down the side of the tree in the direction you may choose.
Mind and not have the wire so low that a dog can let it off.
When the wire is touched it draws the nail, and the hammer
falling down on the barrel, lets the cap off. Being fastened
up in a tree, and close to the stem, it can catch the eye of no

one, and merely has to be shifted occasionally, though of course
F2

68 Protection in Covert.

there is no need to do this until after it has been fired. After
all, nothing daunts poachers so much as pitfalls made in the
woods. ‘They should be about seven feet deep, and made with
the sides slanting, so that the chamber is larger at the bottom
than at the top. Unless boarded all round, the soil will fall in.
The opening should be four feet square, and be covered with
sticks and sods, or anything resembling the surrounding
ground. Poachers are very shy of venturing into woods
where you have these pit-falls.”’

Alarm guns discharging wooden or other plugs upwards.
or horizontally should never be used, as danger to human
life always accompanies their employment. It is almost:
unnecessary to remark that alarm guns of various forms can
be purchased at any gunmaker’s.

The destruction effected in preserves during the nesting
season by crows, jackdaws, magpies, jays, and other egg-

eating birds is well known, and can only be remedied by the
trapping or shooting of the culprits. The question as to the:

influence of the rook in pheasant coverts is one of those:
respecting which there is much to be said on both sides. The.
rook is so often regarded as a valuable ally to the agriculturist,,
by destroying an enormous number of grubs, wire-worms, ete...
that its case claims attentive consideration.

I have known many cases where pheasants have sat, andi
reared their young safely, almost immediately under a rookery..
On the other hand, there is no doubt but that, when pressed
for food or where they once acquire the habit, rooks will:
destroy pheasants’ eggs in large numbers.

The late Colonel J. Whyte, Newtown Manor, Sligo, writes.
as follows respecting the rook: “ There appears some doubt
whether rooks suck pheasants’ eggs, or whether the carrion.
crow is not the real depredator. Perhaps what follows may
set the question at rest. Some years age Lord Clonbrock
asked me if I had ever known rooks eat the eggs of pheasants..
My idea was that they might do so occasionally, but not

as a custom. His lordship replied: ‘The rooks about me:

—"

The Question of Rooks. 69

have within the last year or two taken to hunt up and destroy
the eggs as regularly as if they were so many magpies. I did
not believe my keeper at first, but, going myself to look out,
I saw them regularly beating up and down a piece of rough
ground where the pheasants nest, and when they found one
they would rise up a few yards in the air and then pounce
down on it.’ Lord Dunsandle’s place is within fifteen or
sixteen miles of Lord Clonbrock ; there are three rookeries in
it, and the first question I asked the keeper on my arrival
there to shoot was, ‘Do the rooks suck or damage the
pheasants’ eggs?’ The answer was, ‘ No’; nor did they do
so till this year. But about a week ago I received from Lord
Dunsandle a letter, im which he said, *‘ This year the rooks
have taken to destroying my pheasants’ eggs, and the mischief
they have done is incredible ; the fields are strewn with broken
eggs.’ It would therefore appear that not only do rooks
destroy eggs, but that they take to it in a sudden and un-
accountable manner. ‘The reason that no shells are to be found
under the trees in a rookery is, that the rook breaks and eats
the eggs on the spot. Jackdaws will eat eggs whenever they
ean find them, and my keeper assures me that a short time
since he saw one take a little rabbit up in his claws several
yards, and then drop it on his approach.”

Mr. Leno, a very extensive pheasant breeder, states the
case still more forcibly :—‘* My experience is, that rooks will
destroy pheasants’ eggs whenever they happen to find them
out. In one week a rook came twice and settled down in my
pheasantry, and took an egg away each time; and where
rooks abound, if perchance a pheasant’s or partridge’s nest
is left by the mowers, the rooks may be seen crowding around
the patch of grass left for shelter, and the eggs are finished
in quick time. It is useless to leave a nest exposed in the
neighbourhood of rooks, as they are sure to eat them.”

Mr. Harman, of Riverstown, co. Shgo, writes: “I can
confirm the destruction of pheasants’ eggs. A few years
ago, in a dry spring, with a north-east wind for many weeks,

70 Protection in Covert.

when the rooks could not bore for their accustomed food,
about one hundred and fifty pheasants’ eggs—i.e., the shells
-—were found under the rookery near the house, having been
taken by the rooks to feed their young, other food failing
them. I have caught them when baiting traps with eggs for
magpies.”

Mr. J. E. Harting informs me that on one occasion, in the
month of April, about the 14th or 15th, he saw a rook in the
act of carrying off a pheasant’s egg from a copse in West.
Sussex. The bird was carrying the egg upon the point of the
bill, and on being fired at he dropped it. There was a large
and irregularly shaped hole towards the larger end. On the
very ground where this occurred, my informant had heard the
keeper say that he had on more than one occasion shot rooks
in the act of carrying off pheasants’ eggs.

The balance of the evidence for and against the rook in
respect of conduct regarding the eggs of pheasants appears.
to show that, when hard pressed for food, rooks will even
destroy not only eggs but also the young birds. A correspon-
dent writes as follows :—‘‘ On June 13 my keeper observed
about half a dozen rooks engaged amongst the coops of young
pheasants, and, suspecting their object, drove them off. The
next morning, having fed and watered the young birds, he
went to his cottage, and, looking out about six o'clock, saw a
strong detachment of rooks from a neighbouring colony
in great excitement amongst the coops. He ran down, a
distance of two hundred yards, as fast as possible, but before
he arrived they had succeeded in killing, and for the most.
part carrying off, from forty to fifty birds, two or three weeks
old. As he came amongst them they flew up in all directions,
their beaks full of the spoil. The dead birds not carried
away had all of their heads pulled off, and most of their legs
and wings torn from the body. I have long known that
rooks destroy partridges’ nests and eat the eggs when short
of other food, but have never known a raid of this description.
I attribute it to the excessive drought, which has so starved

When Rooks Eat Eggs. (fa)

the birds by depriving them of their natural insect food that
they are driven to depredation. It will be necessary to be
on guard for some time; bad habits once acquired may last
even more than one season. Probably the half-dozen rooks
first seen amongst the coops tasted two or three, and, finding
them eatable, brought their friends in numbers the next
morning.”

During recent years a great deal of evidence has been
accumulated respecting the destruction of eggs and young
pheasants in preserves by rooks. In the spring of 1897, at
the residence of Sir Walter Gilbey at Elsenham, it was dis-
covered that the rooks had suddenly taken to the destruction
of the eggs of the turkeys which were allowed to breed in the
open, and three nests had been ravaged, the rooks being caught
at their evil work by the keeper and one of the visitors. No
less than fifty eggs had been destroyed, those only escaping
on which the hens were sitting. Having destroyed the whole
of the turkey eggs available, the rooks then turned their atten-
tion to the pheasants’ eggs in the coverts, the report of the head
keeper the next morning being that the eggs that had been left
and not collected for hatching under hens had been destroyed
by them, and during the season many hundreds of eggs were
thus lost before they could be collected by the keepers. Since
then the rooks have been kept in check.

The great increase in the number of rooks throughout the
country in the first decade of the twentieth century, coupled
with the fact that when pressed by hunger, as in the case of
a drought, they take to egg stealing and other depredations,
has caused them to become formidable enemies of the game
preserver.

Crows are even more destructive than rooks. Asan instance
of their evil influence I may quote from Mr. Ogilvie Grant’s
work on “Game Birds.”’ Mr. Grant writes as follows: “I
was passing through a Scotch fir plantation forming part
of a large estate in the North of Scotland where thousands
of pheasants are annually reared and turned down. The

72, Protection in Covert.

plantation ran along about a hundred feet above the rocky sea-
coast, and as we advanced along the slippery path we found
several sucked pheasants’ eggs, evidently the work of crows ;
nor had we gone far before we came suddenly upon a whole
family of hooded rascals, five young and two old birds. In
the course of about a quarter of a mile we counted over a
hundred empty shells which had evidently been carried to the
path and there devoured. How many more might have been
discovered had we searched it is impossible to say, but we
saw ample evidence of the wholesale destruction which a
family of crows is capable of committing among pheasants’
egas.”

The moorhen, waterhen, or common gallinule is occasion-
ally destructive to young pheasants. Mr. Gould recounted
the evidence in “ The Birds of Great Britain,” and Mr. H. J.
Partridge, of Hockham Hall, Thetford, writing to the Zoologist,
stated that “At the beginning of July, the keeper
having lost several pheasants about three weeks old from a
copse, and having set traps in vain for winged and four-footed
vermin, determined to keep watch for the aggressor, when,
after some time, a moorhen was seen walking about near the
copse ; the keeper, supposing it only came to eat the young
pheasants’ food, did not shoot it, until he saw the moorhen
strike a young pheasant, which it killed immediately and
devoured, except the leg and wing bones. The remains agreed
exactly with eight found before.”

Lord Lilford, writing in “ Dresser’s Birds of Europe,”
says: “I look upon the waterhen as an enemy to the game-
preserver, not only from the quantity of pheasant food which
it devours, but from the fact that it will attack, lull, and eat
young birds of all sorts. The bird is a great favourite of
mine, and I should be sorry to encourage its destruction, but
I am persuaded that it is a dangerous neighbour to young
game birds’”’; and in his “ Birds of Northamptonshire ”’ he
adds, ““ We cannot acquit them of the charge of a very pugna-
cious and destructive tendency amongst their own and other

Moorhens, Kestrels. fe:

species of birds, and they are most certainly bad neighbours
for young pheasants and partridges, as they not only consume
a good deal of the food intended for game birds, but will now
and then capture and devour the birds themselves.”

The common kestrel, or windhover, so well known as a
destroyer of field mice and rats, has also been accused of
occasionally attacking young pheasants. Mr. J. H. Gurney,
of Northrepps Hall, Norwich, writes as follows :—* Mr.
Stevenson, in his article on the kestrel in the ‘ Birds of Norfolk,’
remarks: ‘That some kestrels carry off young partmdges
as well as other small birds during the nesting season is too
well authenticated as a fact for even their warmest advocates
to gainsay.’ For many years I have endeavoured to collect
reliable information on this point, and I am convinced of the
correctness of Mr. Stevenson’s opinion above quoted ; but there
is this difference between the sparrowhawk and the kestrel
in their habits of preying on young partridges and pheasants—
viz., that the kestrel only destroys them when very young,
and the sparrowhawk continues to attack them long after
they have grown too large to be prey for the kestrel. To
particularise two instances: Many years ago a very young
partridge was brought to me which had been taken out of a
kestrel’s nest at Easton, in Norfolk ; and a gamekeeper in this
parish, who is as trustworthy an observer of such matters
as any man I know, saw a hen kestrel take up a very young
pheasant in its talons and rise with it about eight feet from the
ground ; my informant then fired at the depredator with a
small pistol, when it dropped its prey, which, though some-
what injured, ultimately recovered ; and an instance of a young
pheasant found in the nest of a kestrel was recorded in the
Field of May 13, 1868.”

Mr. Booth, in his “ Rough Notes on British Birds,” care-
fully investigated the accusations against the kestrel, and
maintained that it is one of our most useful birds, and a
decided ally to the game preserver, more especially as a
destroyer of rats, of which it kills large numbers. He says

74 Protection in Covert.

he has never known the kestrel to carry off young broods of
either pheasants or partridges, but that the damage done by
the sparrowhawk is often attributed to the kestrel.

On the contrary, Mr. Marshall, of Wallingford, writing in
the Field, of June 17, 1899, states that he lost twenty-three
young pheasants, which were killed by one male kestrel, and
the following year twenty suffered a similar fate, the kestrel
being seen to pounce upon and carry off his victims in full
view. Ultimately the kestrel forced his way through the
narrow space between the coop and the wire run, and was
captured without injury, so that it was evident that the
aggressor was not a sparrowhawk. He was in splendid
plumage and kept alive ; consequently, there can be no doubt
whatever that occasionally a kestrel will make a raid on a.
brood of young pheasants ; but it is obviously an exceptional
practice, and the good services rendered by the bird may
plead for the species, although it may be desirable to destroy
the particular aggressor.

The pheasant, from nesting on the ground, is peculiarly
exposed to the attacks of four-footed or ground vermin, and
the escape of any of the sitting birds and their eggs from
foxes, stoats, hedgehogs, etc., appears at first sight almost.
impossible. This escape is attributed by many, possibly by
the majority, of sportsmen to the alleged fact that in the
birds when sitting the scent which is given out by the animal
at other times is suppressed ; in proof of this statement is:
adduced the fact that dogs, even those of the keenest powers:
of smell, will pass within a few feet, or even a less distance,.
of a sitting pheasant without evincing the slightest cognizance
of her proximity, provided she is concealed from sight. By
others this circumstance is denied. They reason a priori that
it is impossible for an animal to suppress the secretions and
exhalations natural to it—secretion not being a voluntary act.
I believe, however, that the peculiar specific odour of the bird
is suppressed during incubation, not, however, as a voluntary
act, but in a manner which is capable of being accounted for

Scent. 15

physiologically. The suppression of the scent during incuba-
tion is necessary to the safety of the birds, and essential to
the continuance of the species. I believe this suppression
is due to what may be termed vicarious secretion. In other
words, the odoriferous particles which are usually exhaled by
the skin are, during such time as the bird is sitting, excreted
into the intestinal canal, most probably into the cecum or
the cloaca. The proof of this is accessible to everyone ; the
excrement of a common fowl or pheasant, when the bird is
not sitting, has, when first discharged, no odour akin to the
smell of the bird itself. On the other hand, the excrement
of a sitting hen has a most remarkable odour of the fowl,
but highly intensified. We are all acquainted with this smell
as increased by heat during roasting; and practical poultry
keepers must have remarked that the excrement voided
by a hen on leaving the nest has an odour totally unlike:
that discharged at any other time, involuntarily recalling
the smell of a roasted fowl, highly and disagreeably intensified.
I believe the explanation of the whole matter to be as follows :
the suppression of the natural scent is essential to the safety
of the bird during incubation; that at such time vicarious.
secretion of the odoriferous particles takes place into the
intestinal canal, so that the bird becomes scentless, and in
this manner her safety and that of the eggs is secured. This
explanation would probably apply equally to partridges and
other birds nesting on the ground.

The absence of scent in the sitting pheasant is most probably
the explanation of the fact that foxes and pheasants are capable
of being reared in the same preserves ; at the same time the
keepers are usually desirous of making assurance doubly sure, by
scaring the foxes from the neighbourhood of the nests by some
strong and offensive substance. A very practical gamekeeper”
writes as follows :—‘‘ If any keeper will find his nests and
sprinkle a little gas tar anywhere about them, he will find
the foxes will not take the birds. I should, as a keeper, find
every nest possible, and dress the bushes, stumps of trees, ete...

76 Protection in Covert.

near the place of such nest, and then keep away entirely till
I thought the bird had hatched, as constantly haunting a bird’s
nest is the most foolish thing that can be. When such nests
are once found and dressed, let the keeper look out and trap
all kinds of vermin, such as the eat, stoat, fitchet, weasel,
hedgehog, rat, magpie, jay, hawk, crow, rook, or jackdaw.
These are all enemies to the birds, as well as the fox. I am
satisfied, as a gamekeeper, that with good vermin trapping,
dressing near the nests, and good bushing and pegging of land,
anyone will have plenty of game, and may still keep plenty of
foxes.”

Another equally efficacious plan, the value of which has
been repeatedly proved, is to fill a number of phials with the
so-called ** oil of animal ”’ (also known as oil of hartshorn and
Dippel’s oil), and suspend them uncorked to sticks about
eighteen inches long, and stick two or three round each nest,
about a foot from it. The smell of the oil will keep the foxes
from approaching.

In the vicinity of dwellings, there is no more dangerous
enemy to pheasants than the common cat. Captaim Darwin,
in his “‘ Game Preserver’s Manual,’ writes as follows :—
* There is no species of vermin more destructive to game than
the domestic cat. People not aware of her predatory habits
would never for a moment suppose that the household favourite
that appears to be dozing so innocently by the fire is most
probably under the influence of fatigue caused by a hard
night’s hunting in the plantations. How different also in
her manner is a cat when at home and when detected prowling
after the game. In the first of the two cases she is tame
and accessible to any little attentions ; in the latter she seems
to know she is doing wrong, and scampers off home as hard
as she can go. Luckily there is no animal more easily taken
in a trap, if common care be used in setting. Box traps,
however, with drop doors open at both ends, are much the
most efficacious, as the victims, whether cats, dogs, rats,
and even foxes, walk into them without suspicion, and, treading

Foxes ; Cats; Hedgehogs. 77

on the platform in the middle, cause both doors to fall simul-.
taneously, when the animal is secured unharmed, and may either
be liberated or shot into a sack and drowned.

Laying poisoned meat is now illegal, and restrictions are
placed upon the sale of arsenic by statute; nevertheless I
would caution anyone against the use of that drug, the employ-
ment of which is attended with much cruelty, as with some:
animals it is immediately rejected by vomiting, but not before:
it has laid the foundation of a violent and painful inflammation
of the stomach, from which the animal suffers for weeks, but
rarely dies. If it is absolutely necessary to use poison for
cats, a little carbonate of baryta, mixed up with the soft roe-
of a red herring, is the most certain and speedy that can be:
employed, but a good keeper should know how to keep his.
preserves clear of vermin without the aid of poison.

Hedgehogs are undoubtedly destructive to eggs as well as.
to the young birds, and should be trapped in coverts in which
pheasants are reared.

Badgers are such interesting animals that many covert-
owners would protect them at the expense of their game ;
but there can be no question that if they become too numerous,
or perhaps if the season happens to be exceptionally dry,
they may do a considerable amount of damage, and will devour
whole clutches of hatching eggs.

Among the other enemies to young pheasants that attack
them occasionally may be mentioned adders, and even farni-
yard ducks that have gained access to the coops.

The little owl, too, Athene noctwa, which was first introduced
into England from Holland by the late Lord Lilford in the early
‘nineties, and which has since multiplied enormously and
spread into almost every county in England, has proved a
most unfortunate addition to our fauna. Its diet consists
largely of beetles, worms, etc., but it also kills great quantities.
of small birds, and with many authenticated instances of
depredation in the rearig-field to its discredit it cannot be
acquitted as an enemy of young pheasants.

CHAPTER VI.

Management of Pheasants in
Confinement.

Formation of Pens and Coverts.

AVING treated of pheasants as wild birds, their

rearing and management in enclosed pens and

aviaries have next to be _ considered. When
pheasants are bred for turning out into the coverts, and
not as merely ornamental aviary birds, the system of
movable enclosures, constructed of rough hurdles, will be
found far superior to any more elaborate contrivances, for,
when the breeding birds are kept in the same place year after
year, the ground becomes, in spite of all the care that may be
bestowed on it, foul and tainted, disease breaks out even
amongst the old birds, and the successful rearing of young ones
is hopeless.

The pens should be situated in a dry situation, sandy or
chalky if possible, but any soil not retentive of wet will answer.
If the surface is sloping it is to be preferred, as the rain is less
likely to render the ground permanently damp. Although
cold is not injurious to the mature birds, and they require no
special shelter, the south side of a hill or rising ground is to
be chosen in preference, as the young stock are delicate.
Common wattled hurdles, made seven feet long, and set up
on end, make as good pens as can be desired ; they should
be supported by posts or fir poles driven firmly into the
ground, with a horizontal pole at the top, to which the
hurdles are bound by tarred cord, or, still better, very

With Netting or Open? 79

stout flexible binding wire, which should also be used to
secure them together at top and bottom. The posts should
be inside the pen, as better calculated to resist any pressure
from without.

The hurdles should rest on the ground without any opening
below, and if they are sunk three or four inches below the
surface the pens will be more secure against dogs and foxes
or any animals likely to scratch their way under. The size
of these pens should be as large as convenient ; for a cock
and three to five hens—the utmost number that should be
placed together—as many hurdles should be employed as
will form a pen twenty-five to thirty-five feet square, the
smaller containing 625 square or superficial feet of surface ;
the larger, which will require less than half as many more
hurdles, containing nearly double the interior space, namely,
1225 square feet. If the birds are full winged, these enclosures
must be netted over the top; for this purpose old tanned
herring netting, which can be bought very cheaply, will be
found much better than wire-work, as the pheasants are
apt, when frightened, to fly up against the top of the enclosure,
and if it be of wire, to break their necks or seriously injure
themselves. Should netting be employed, several upright
poles, with cross pieces at the top, are required to be placed
at equal distances to support the netting, and prevent it
hanging down into the interior of the pen. A much better
plan is to leave the pen quite open at the top, and to clip
one of the wings of each bird by stripping with a pair of
scissors the quills of twelve or fourteen of the flight feathers.
When the birds cannot fly they become much tamer, are
more productive, and are not so apt to injure themselves by
‘dashing about wildly, especially if there be, as is desirable,
‘brushwood cover or faggots in the pen, under which they
can run and conceal themselves. Some persons are in the
habit of pinioning the birds by cutting off the last joint of
the wing, thus removing permanently the ten primary quills,
but the plan is not to be recommended, as the pinioned birds

SO Formation of Pens.

are quite incapable of taking due care of themselves when
turned out into the open, and are lable to fall a prey to ground
vermin.

As illustrative of the mode in which a large number of
birds can be successfully kept in one locality, I will describe:
the arrangements which I saw at the pheasantries belonging
to Mr. Leno, a very successful rearer. The birds are kept in
runs enclosed by hurdles between six and seven feet high.
These are formed of stout straight larch laths nailed to cross.
pieces of oak or other strong wood, and are fastened to stout
posts securely driven into the ground. As the posts are
capable of being easily withdrawn and replaced, there is no:
difficulty in moving the pens year after year—a most important.
consideration for the preservation of the health of the birds.
Moreover, by employing a greater or smaller number of hurdles.
and posts, pens of any required size may be constructed,
so as to accommodate a larger or smaller number of birds.
On my visit the runs had recently been shifted on to new
ground, which consisted of young hazel coppice, which had been
partly cleared. The surface was covered with the dead leaves.
of last year’s growth and with short underwood, affording
ample opportunity for the birds to amuse themselves by scratch-
ing for insects and by seeking food amongst the leaves. The
amount of undergrowth afforded another important advantage,
that the birds, on the entrance of a stranger, could run under
shelter, and so conceal themselves, instead of dashing about
wildly, as they would otherwise have done. No roof or shelter
of any kind was afforded them; had such been erected the birds.
would only have used it for roosting upon, and not for sleeping
under. In each pen was a horizontal pole, supported about
four feet from the ground by a post at each end. Across this
was laid a number of stout branches and long faggots, forming
a kind of shelter to which the birds could have recourse,
and under which the hens would occasionally lay ; but the
chief advantage it affords is that of a roosting-place, elevated
form the ground, and so keeping the birds away from the

In Hazel Coppice. 8]

cold damp soil during the mght. The sloping arrangement
of these branches is advantageous to the birds, as all of them
have the flight feathers of one wing (not both) cut short ;
they are thus destitute of the power of flight, and consequently
inchned branches, up which they can walk and down which
they can descend without violence, are exceedingly useful.
These runs, open as they are, afford all the shelter required,
provided they are not placed on the north or east side of a
hill or rising ground. Their advantage over permanent
buildings is great ; in the latter pheasants cannot be success-
fully reared, as the ground becomes tainted, epidemic disease
breaks out, and the soil also becomes charged with the ova of
the Syngamus trachealis, or gapeworm, a parasite which often
causes great havoc amongst the young poults. Both of these
evils may be in great measure avoided by shifting the runs as
frequently as may be convenient. The runs may be made of
any size, so as to accommodate one cock and three or four
hens, or a larger number of birds. Care must be taken not
to have them too small, as the birds when closely confined
often take to pecking one another's feathers—an evil which
is occasionally carried on until the persecuted bird is killed.
When runs are made small, the ground very rapidly becomes
tainted, and the birds consequently diseased. The vigorous,
healthy aspect of the numerous birds I saw at these
pheasantries was evidently owing, in great part at least, to
the large size of the enclosures, and the fresh ground on to
which they are so frequently shifted. No nest-places are
made or required ; the hens generaily drop their eggs about
at random, and they should be looked for and collected at
least twice a day. This is most important, as, if any eggs
are chipped or broken, the birds may acquire the bad habit of
pecking them, which is quickly acquired by all others in the
run, and will be found exceedingly difficult to eradicate. The
food employed is good sound barley, with a certain proportion
of buckwheat. This is varied by soft food consisting of meal,

with which, at times, a small proportion of greaves is mixed
G

82 Formation of Pens.

to supply the place of the animal food the pheasants would
obtain in a state of nature. Acorns are occasionally employed,
but the birds prefer grain. The food is strewed broadcast on
the ground ; and it is needless to say that a constant supply
of clean fresh water is provided for the birds. The young
are hatched under common barnyard fowls, and are reared on
custard, biscuit, meal, rice, and millet, with occasionally a
little hempseed—ants’ eggs, though exceedingly advantageous,
not being found in the locality.

The arrangements recommended by Mr. I’. Crook vary
somewhat in detail from those described, but are equally
practical and effective. He writes:—‘‘ An order should
be given to the ordinary wattled-hurdle makers to make a
given quantity of six feet by six feet open hurdles, with well-
pointed ends ; twenty-four of these hurdles, when placed in
position, will make a convenient-sized run, thirty-six feet
every way ; but preparation must be made for a doorway, and
for covering over the whole of the hurdles inside the run with
one and a half inch wire netting round the sides, and string
netting for the top. For the size run specified there must be
four posts, made with four-way T piece tops, to carry the
netting ; the posts to be placed equi-distant from each other,
to properly divide off the interior centre space; from each
upright should branch out movable perches about eighteen
inches long, at different heights from the ground. The next
and most important point is the arrangement of nesting-
places. At the most retired portion of the run faggots should
be placed in bundles of three or more, arranged conical fashion,
or piled as soldiers do their arms, leaving a good space open
at the bottom ; but before setting the faggots in their places
the earth must be dug out six inches deep, and filled in with
dry loose sand or fine drv mound, and the faggots placed over
the sand. There should be as many of these nesting-places
as the space will afford, taking care that sufficient space is
left between each to admit of easy access by the birds and their
keeper.” Some writers recommend pens made of eight

hed De

Hurdles and Faggots. 83

hurdles, each six feet long, giving a square of twelve feet
in each side, and having an interior space of only 144 superficial
feet ; but these pens are too small for the health or comfort
of the birds, for they are far more apt to fall into the evil
habits of egg eating and feather plucking than when confined
in larger runs.

With regard to the food of the old birds in the pens, the
more varied it is the better. Good sound grain, such as maize,
barley, buckwheat, malt, tail wheat, oats, etc., may be freely
used. But maize should be used sparingly, as it 1s too fatten-
ing for laying pheasants or hens. Mr. Baily recommends
strongly an occasional feed of boiled potatoes, of which the
birds are exceedingly fond. He writes :—‘‘ For bringing
pheasants home, or for keeping them there, we know of
nothing equal to boiled potatoes. Let them be _ boiled
with the skins whole, and in that state taken to the
place where they are to be used. Before they are put
down, cut out of each skin a piece the size of a
shiling, showing the meal within. Place them at
moderate distances from each ‘other, and the birds will follow
them anywhere.”

Rice and damaged currants and raisins are very well for
an oceasional change, but should be sparmgly used. A few
crushed acorns may be given from time to time, but an excessive
consumption is apt to prove injurious. Mr. J. Fairfax Muckley
of Audnam, writes on their employment as follows :—‘‘ Three
seasons ago [| laid in a stock of acorns, and instructed the
feeder to give the pheasants a few every day. They
preferred them to other food. Im one week I had ten
dead birds. They were fat and healthy in every respect,
with the exception of inflammation of the intestines. My
conclusion is, that if allowed to have free access to acorns
they eat more than they should, and consequently many
die.’ On the other hand, it should be remembered that
pheasants at liberty usually have access to an unlimited
supply of acorns.

84. Formation of Pens.

With regard to the employment of animal food, such as
horseflesh, greaves, ete., I believe its use, except in the very
smallest quantity, to be exceedingly injurious; nor do I
approve of the spiced condiments so strongly recommended
by the makers. As regards the use of greaves, Dr. Hammond
Smith writes :—‘‘I have always objected to these, unless
given in very small quantities, and if possible well cooked.
Greaves are the residue from soap and candle works, and if
kept would become a regular hot-bed for all sorts of baeilh,
especially the Goertner and coli bacillus, either of which
might set up enteritis.” The bodies of dead domestic animals
can, however, be most advantageously utilised by allowing
them to become thoroughly fly-blown, and then burying them
under about a foot of loose soil in the pens, where the maggots
go through the regular stages of growth, after which they
work their way to the surface cleansed of all impurities in their
passage through the soil. They furnish an admirable supply
of insect food for the birds, and give them constant occupation
and exercise in scratching in the ground. Utilised in this
manner, the bodies of dead fowls, or any small domestic
animals, are perfectly inoffensive, and the result is most
beneficial to the birds.

The employment of crushed bones, as a substitute for the
varied animal substances the pheasant feeds upon when in a
wild state, is highly advantageous. Mr. F. Crook writes :—
‘“ We have seen many instances of game being perfectly cured
of both eating their eggs and plucking each other, by the
continual practice of giving a portion of well-smashed bones
every day. These remarks applv more especially to the home
pheasantries, in consequence of the absence of the natural
shell stuff they pick up when at hberty, but we would recom-
mend some to be thrown about the feeding grounds of the
preserves, as the highly nutritious nature of the elements
of smashed fresh bones conduces remarkably to keep the birds
together, particularly in very wet seasons, when the condition
of the land renders it impossible for them to scratch about to

eee ee

How to Use Maggots. 85

the same extent.’’ Should the aviary be situated on soil in
which small stones are absent, these must be supplied ; this
is conveniently done by throwing in some fresh gravel once or
twice a week; but it has been found that small granite grit
is an excellent material, and some of the most successful
rearers are in the habit of having truckloads of this forwarded
by rail from the granite quarries, solely for the use of their
pheasants.

There is one point on which almost all treatises on the
management of pheasants are lamentably deficient, namely,
in enforcing the absolute necessity for a constant supply
of fresh green vegetable food. The tender grasses in small
pens are soon eaten, and the birds, pining for fresh vegetable
diet, become irritable, feverish, and take to plucking each
other’s feathers. To prevent this, cabbages, turnip leaves—
still better, waste lettuces from the garden, when going to seed
—should be supplied as fast as they are eaten; the smaller
the pen the greater the necessity for this supply. The late
Dr. Jerdon, the distinguished author of “* The Birds of India,”
when visiting the pheasantries in the Zoological Gardens,
said, in his emphatic manner, “ You are not giving these
birds enough vegetable food. Lettuce! Lettuce!! Let-
tuce!!!’’ From my long experience in breeding gallinaceous
birds of different species, I can fully endorse his reeommenda-
tions.

In advising plenty of vegetable food for voung pheasants,
Dr. Hammond Smith recommends, as the most valuable of all,
onions, “ especially the green tops of the young onions thrown
away when gardeners are thinning the beds, chopped up bulbs
and all, and mixed with the soft food for the young birds.
The smell of garlic is said to be a preventive of gapes,
and so also is the onion, which botanically belongs to the same
family.”

Should these cultivated vegetables be not readily obtained,
a good supply of fresh cut turves, with abundance of young
grass and plenty of clover, should be furnished daily.

S6 Formation of Pens.

Instead of placing a cock and three to five hens in a pen,
as recommended, some persons advocate putting cut-winged
hens only in enclosures open at the top, so that they may be
visited by the wild males. This method can only be followed
in the vicinity of well-stocked coverts, and even under these
conditions it is not always successful, the eggs frequently not
being fertilised. A very practical correspondent writes as
follows : “‘ It is sometimes recommended to put pheasant hens
into small enclosures open at the top, so that the wild cocks
might get to them. I suppose generally that plan is successful,
but in my own case it has failed entirely. I had plenty of
eges, but no chickens. My keeper gathered the eggs regularly
and carefully, and they were duly set under common hens ;
but not one single egg came off. I know the wild cocks came
close to the enclosure, but I never actually found one inside.
I followed Baily’s instructions implicitly ; my own impression
was, | must say, that the wild cocks had not visited the hens.”
This appears an exceptional case, and may probably be due
to some local conditions, such as the small size of the enclosures.

On the other hand, a second authority states :—‘‘ On an
estate with which I am well acquainted, the whole of the
young birds, some 400, were reared from eggs produced -by
hens whose mates were wild birds. The pheasantry was
constructed with an open top, and the wild cock birds regularly
visited it. The tameness of these birds was remarkable,
and I have frequently seen six or eight cock birds walking
fearlessly about within a few yards of me while inspecting
the birds. As an instance of the audacity of the wild bird,
I may mention that a few years ago I kept five hen pheasants
and one cock pheasant in a temporary covered pheasantry,
the lower part being covered up to the height of two or three
feet, and the upper part being constructed of wire stretched
on poles. I noticed shortly after the birds had been put in
that the wire was bulged inwards in several places, and could
not imagine how it had been done. On watching, however,
I found a wild cock pheasant was in the habit of regularly

Hens Mated with Wild Cocks. 87

fighting with the confined male bird by flying up against the
wire, the bird inside being by no means loth to accept the
challenge. One morning, however, the wild bird was found
inside, a nail having given way in one of his flights against
the wire netting, being the cause of his unexpected capture.
When discovered he had nearly killed the imprisoned cock
bird, who was removed, and his adversary substituted. I
may remark that those who have tried breeding from wild
cocks will hardly, I fancy, return to the old system of keeping
the cocks in confinement, as I have found that the birds bred
from wild cocks are invariably stronger, and consequently
easier to rear than those bred in the ordinary way.”

There is no absolute necessity, however, for having recourse
to the use of open pens, as the eggs of cut-winged birds, kept
in pheasantries of sufficient size, well fed, with a good variety of
fresh vegetable food, and supphed daily with clean water,
usually hatch quite well, although the chicks may not be as
strong as those reared from eggs gathered out of nests in the
open covert.

The construction of more ornamental and permanent
aviaries has now to be spoken of, but will not require much
consideration. Fixed aviaries are far inferior, as regards the
health of the birds, to those that are movable ; therefore, if
possible, they should always be constructed so as to admit
of their being shifted on to new ground as often as is convenient.
The great cause of the comparatively small success that
attends the rearing of pheasants in our Zoological Gardens
arises from the fact that the birds are kept on the same spot
year after year, and in aviaries that are not one-tenth of the
size required for the health and comfort of the birds.

The plan of an ornamental aviary. necessarily depends
on the desires of the owner, and hardly comes within the
scope of this work. Mr. Crook, who had much experience in
erecting ornamental aviaries, writes as follows respecting
their construction: “‘ A neatly constructed lean-to building
may be employed, facing south or south-west ; ten feet. wide

85 Formation of Pens.

or long, six feet deep from back to front, and six feet high at
front ; the roof should project over the side eighteen inches to
throw off the wet. The ground must be dug out under the
house, and dry earth or sand be filled in. Faggots may be
placed here as before directed, or slanting against the back
wall; every precaution being taken to induce seclusion for
the nests. I'or those pheasantries desired for strictly orna-
mental purposes the run may be made to any size agreeable to
the wishes of the owner and the conveniences of the ground
at command ; or of any design in character with some buildings
near at hand. These ornamental aviaries may be carried
out to any extent, but cannot be made to move about ; there-
fore the greatest attention must be paid to any minute detail
in construction to ensure the health and contentedness of the
inmates. When it is possible, the pens or runs should be placed
where there are some low-growing shrubs. or even currant
or gooseberry bushes, as they afford good sheltering places,
and it is quite possible that the hens will make their laying
nests at the roots of some of them, which will be a benefit to
the birds.”

When the birds are left full-winged in wire aviaries, and
are wild, it will be found very advantageous to have a cord
netting stretched some inches below the wire top, as other-
wise the birds are very apt to injure themselves severely
when they dash upwards on being alarmed. When it is
required to handle the pheasants, precautions must be employed
that are not needful in the case of fowls, for their extreme
timidity causes them to struggle so wildly as often to denude
themselves of a great portion of their plumage, or even to
break or dislocate their limbs. They are best caught by the
aid of a large landing-net, with which they can be secured
when driven into an angle, formed by setting a large hurdle
against the side or in the corner of the pen. Mr. Baily, in
his practical little treatise, writes :—“* The best way of catching
them is with a net made of hazel rod, seven or eight feet long,
forked at top. The fork is bent round, or rather oval shaped,

Nesting Places. 89

forming a hoop long enough to take in the bird without injuring
its plumage. It is then covered with netting loose enough
to allow of its being placed on the bird without pressing it
down to injure it, and tight enough to prevent it from turning
round in the net to the detriment of its plumage. Where
many birds have to be caught, it is expedited by the adoption
of an expedient I will deseribe ; and the plan is good, because
it is always bad for the birds to be driven about, which they
must be before they can be caught, if they are in a large pen.
An extra hurdle should be made, to which a door should be
joined on hinges. It should be three feet long. This should
be placed by the side of one of those forming the pen, and the
door being open the birds should be gently driven into it ;
then the door should be closed. They may then be taken
with the hand or net. A pheasant should be caught with one
hand, taking at the same time a wing and thigh, the other hand
should be brought into play directly to prevent its
struggling, and it may then be easily and safely held in
one, taking both thighs and the tips of both wings in the
hand at the same time. It takes two persons to cut the
wings. They should always be held with their heads towards
the person holding them.”’

Since the first publication of this work the plans advocated
in it have been generally tested and discussed. The remarks
of one of the writers contain so many useful details that Lam
glad to reproduce the more practical portion of his letters :

“The advice offered with reference to pheasant pens or
aviaries is as easy and inexpensive of adoption as it is good.
By carefully following the excellent instructions fully set
forth in the work upon pheasants by Mr. Tegetmeier—to
whom the thanks of all lovers of the bird are due—I succeeded
during the first spring in securing from thirty-five hens one
thousand eggs. Forty birds similarly treated produced the
following season 1590 ; the next year forty-one hens presented
us 1600 ; while the present year offers promise of a still better
return.

G0 Formation of Pens.

“The fertihty of our eggs is most satisfactory, very nearly
all proving fruitful, the few failing to hatch contaiming chicks,
which through accident merely had not reached maturity.
Here, again, I must gratefully acknowledge the excellent
practical instructions proffered by Mr. Tegetmeier relating
to feeding specially and management generally. We take
all the pheasants with which our pens are supplied from early
hatchings, care being observed that a due admixture of wild
birds’ eggs are placed in these first sittings, thus securing a
thorough change of blood.

“On or about Sept. 1 the young birds are caught up, the
strongest selected, one cock to five hens, and, with a wing
cut, placed in their future home. They require no
further attention beyond the frequent supplying of fresh
food and water twice or thrice a day, reclipping the cut
wing excepted.

‘“ Our aviary here being within easy flight of natural coverts,
we adopt clipping in preference to pinioning, since, when the
egg harvest closes, by extracting the crippled feathers, a
gradual recovery of power enables the birds one by one to effect
escape; the exodus thus permitted being generally fully
accomplished in sufficient time for a thorough cleaning and
preparation of the aviary in readiness for its proposed future
young occupants. One of the great secrets of success hes
in variety of dry and liberality of green food, together with a
generous supply of frequently changed water, gravel or road
grit, ashes, chalk, and pounded bones.

‘““T now propose offermg a few suggestions touching more
particularly the position, construction, and general manage-
ment of the pheasant pens or aviaries. It may, however,
be premised that their size and the number of birds proposed
to be kept greatly modify many minor matters of detail,
with reference not only to the health, but also to the comfort
of the prisoners. On the all-important question of site—
fair contiguity to the keeper’s cottage should be observed ;
for if placed at too great a distance, a laxity, in winter more

Choice of Site. Q]

especially, of that solicitude so essential to their welfare is
hkelv to be engendered; while on the other hand close
proximity, above all should there be many children, may,
with all their custodian’s care, prove the cause of great and
irrevocable mischief. ‘Total isolation, again, in the recesseg
of a deep, secluded covert, renders the birds so nervously
sensitive that they are apt, upon the shghtest unexpected
excitement, to lose all self-control, dash about, and thus risk
egos, limbs, and even life.

“Our pens are placed within five yards of, and parallel
to, a leading carriage drive, a thoroughfare daily in use.
From earlest youth, therefore, the birds are more or less
inured to the ever-changing sights and sounds incidental to
ordinary traffic. Their thus seemg and hearing all going on
around gradually enables them to acquire such an amount of
courage that curiosity usurps the place of fright, the cocks
crowing joyously yet defiantly, while the hens peer inquisi-
tively, yet fearlessly, through the lattice of their harems.
The pens should be sufficiently shielded by trees, so as to
insure In very sunny weather a grateful shade ; nevertheless,
too much leafy shelter is apt to prove provocative of damp
and cold. They should also, while enjoying a southern
aspect, be well protected from the east wid. Thus placed,
the birds are better left without any well meant but fanciful
attempts at further imcreasing their comfort. The little
matters above enumerated excepted, the more they are exposed
to the elements and permitted to rough it, the healthier and
more robust they will become.

“As in our present case here, so it frequently occurs that
insufficient space militates against that annual shifting of
aviaries on to new ground, so often recommended, and upon
which, so far as my experience serves me, where the utmost
attention to scrupulous cleanliness has been observed,
unnecessary stress is laid.

“After the laying season, when our birds have availed
themselves. of the liberty. accorded them, the pens are

()) Formation of Pens.

completely denuded of their contents. The ground is trenched
spade deep, thickly sown with unslacked lime, then covered
with from two to three inches of fresh, clean, dry loam, and
finally freely moistened with water through an ordinary
garden-rosed watering-pot, when any floating lime dust is
effectually disposed of, and the young birds may with safety
be introduced.

“Our aviary, in its entirety, measures in width about
27ft., and length 108ft., there being, however, three transverse
divisions; four syuare compartments are thus formed. A
small trench, one foot in depth, is dug around the whole
structure. A piece of stout wire netting, Ift. 6in. in
width, placed with one edge in the bottom of the trench,
has its other laced with wire to the hurdles, up the outside of
which it extends nine inches, when the earth is filled in, and
rammed. The inclosure is thus rendered fox-, cat-, and rabbit-
proof; it has further attached to it ‘ gorse bavins,’ thus
securing warmth and privacy. The whole of the other
portions have now strained over them stout Ijin. mesh
galvanised wire netting. the top only carefully left free, for
ingress and egress of wild birds. Inside each compartment,
and parallel with the divisions, is now placed a row of bush
havins, one against the other, tightly pressed together, forming:
an inverted letter V. On the apex of these faggots the birds
love to perch, preen, and doze, while a secure retreat in case
of sudden fright is offered by the little tunnel left at the base.
A few faggots may also for a similar purpose be placed leaning
against the sides and corners of the inclosure, those angles
where the doors are hung excepted.

“We have also two smaller pens, alike in all respeets, and
attached to those already deseribed, but in measurement only
10ft. by 7ft. These are used for the temporary confinement
of any quarrelsome, egg-destroying, or otherwise refractory
bird, who can thus, until its wing is sufficiently strong for
flight, remain. One of the hurdles dividing these small pens
from their neighbours—as, indeed, in each of the interior

Fox-, Cat-, and Rabbit-proof. 93

divisions—should be easily removable to the end, that the
birds can at pleasure be driven nght through into the smaller
pens for the purpose of capture, wing-clipping, ete.

“The introduction and placing about occasionally of freshly-
cut fir tree branches is judicious. With reference to aliment,
the greater the variety offered the better ; and for a thoroughly
trustworthy detail upon this vital point, again I gratefully
add. vide ‘ Tegetmeier.’ Regularity in the hours of feeding,
however, is as essential as is the quality of food admimuistered-—
three times diurnally, any unfinished débris of the previous
meal having first been carefully removed, should the repasts
be neatly and delicately served, not forgetting that, while all
required is offered with no niggard hand, over-lavish generosity,
only too often the mere promptings of laziness, onght most
carefully to be avoided.

“Powerless are the prisoners to escape those fatal mias-
matic vapours speedily generated by decaying vegetable and
animal matter, which, when permitted to daily be trampled
into the floors of the dwelling, are ever within a few inches,
be it recollected, of their respiratory organs. In addition
also, it is wise to have duplicate shallow circular gaivanised
iron water pans of about eighteen inches in diameter. They
are light, aad consequently more likely to undergo that
thorough and frequent cleansing so necessary.”

Coverts may be stocked either with wild birds or with those,
hatched in pens, that have never been at liberty. Wild birds
caught at the commencement of the year, not later than the
middle of January, are healthier and more prolific than young
birds that have never been allowed to fly. When caught,
they should at once be put into large pens on fresh ground,
having had the flight feathers of one wing cut off, when, if
they are properly fed, they will become fairly tame before the
breeding season. However tame they may become, they
should not be kept more than one, or at the most two seasons,
when their wings should be allowed to grow and other birds
captured to supply their place. Other modes are adopted for

4. Formation of Pens.

capturing the wild birds. ‘The very simple form of trap
described below by Mr. J. E. Harting is perfectly
efficacious for the purpose required. It is merely a modifica-
tion of the old-fashioned sieve trap, so arranged as to be self-
acting, or, in other words, to require no watching. The
accompanying sketch will make all clear. A is an iron hoop off
a large cask, covered with slack netting. At the pomt where
it touches the ground a peg is driven in, to which the hoop is
tied, or, as it were, hinged. Another short peg is driven in
at D, on the top of which rests a cross-piece C, above which
again comes the long upright B which supports the hoop. From
each end of the cross-piece ( a piece of twine is carried to

A, the twine being only a very little way off the ground. This
acts as a trigger, and the moment a bird feeding under the
hoop comes into contact with the twine, the cross-piece C is
jerked away, and the trap falls.

Some breeders prefer large baskets six feet square by one
foot deep, made of strong willow covered with canvas, to the
sieve. This is propped up securely, and the pheasants feed
under it for several days before they are caught. It is then
raised by a single stick, from which a long wire or cord proceeds
to a tree or shelter many vards distant. This is for the
purpose of pulling away the stick and catching the birds
that are feeding underneath it. Open crates are sometimes
recommended to be used in the same way, but they are not
desirable, as the birds injure_themselves in the endeavour
to escape. |

Traps. Y5

Another plan of a somewhat similar character, which has
proved most successful in use, is the catcher represented
on this page. It is made of deal, to be as light as possible,
and can be painted brown. The size at the bottom should
be about 2ft. 4in. square, and at the top about Ift. square,
covered with a lid (Vig. 2), to enable the bird to be removed.
To set, as shown in the sketch, a bender is placed round from
A to B, care being taken that it does not quite reach the front.
Two sticks, C and D, are used ; a notch should be cut in C about
Gin. from the bottom, to admit the top of stick D ; the lower
end of C resting against the bender ; and when the catcher is

placed on the top of stick C the whole is held up by D, the
bender being about 3in. from the ground. When the bird steps
on the bender the trap falls and secures it. If the size described
is used, the birds will hardly ever damage themselves. Where
pheasants are to be caught, the catcher may be placed on the
ground some time before using, propped up with one stick
only, and some white peas strewn underneath, and nowhere
else. With this trap it is no trouble to catch nearly every
bird in the covert, however mild the season.

The best baskets for the transport of pheasants for short
distances are those made of close brown wicker; in shape
they should resemble a basin turned upside down, the part
corresponding to the foot of the basin being uppermost, and

965 Formation of Pens.

forming the only opening into the basket. Before being
used this opening should be covered with canvas, which is to
be closely stitched down halfway round, previously to the
birds being placed inside, and firmly secured afterwards. In
these baskets thev are free from observation and molestation
when travelling by rail or carrier, and from the baskets being
close and circular they are much less lable to injure their
plumage than when sent in more open and angular packages.
In forwarding live birds care should always be taken to attach
a stout and somewhat loose cord across the top of the basket,
in order to serve as a convenient handle by which it can be
hfted with one hand, otherwise, in the hurry of transit, the
railway porters, who cannot be expected to use both
hands in lifting every package, are certain to catch it
up suddenly by one side, and the birds are often severely
injured by being suddenly and violently thrown against the
opposite one.

For longer journeys, such as the transport of pheasants
from abroad, the following instructions were drawn up for
the Royal Zoological Society by Dr. P. L. Slater and Mr. A. D.
Bartlett for the benefit of. those desirous of forwarding the
various species to England.

‘“ INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE TRANSPORT OF PHEASANTS AND
OTHER GALLINACEOUS Birps.

‘1. For exportation, birds bred or reared in captivity
should, if possible, be procured. But if this cannot be done,
the following rules should be attended to as regards wild-
caught birds :

“2. As soon as the birds are captured, the feathers of
one wing and of the tail should be cut off tolerably close
to their bases. ‘The birds should be placed in a room lighted
only from a skylight above, and having the floor sprinkled
with gravel or sand, mixed with tufts of grass and roots and
a little earth. Among these the food should be thrown.
A tame bird placed with the wild ones is of great advantage,

Pheasants Sent by Train. 97

because this bird will induce the new captives to feed. The
birds should be kept in this way until they have become tame
and are fit to be transferred to the packing-cases.

“3. The food should consist of grain and seeds of various
kinds, berries, fruit, insects, green food (such as cabbage,
lettuce, etc.), bread or soaked biscuit, chopped meat, boiled
eggs, etc.

“4. Travelling cages are most conveniently made of an
oblong shape, divided into compartments about eighteen
inches square, and not higher than just sufficient to allow
the birds to stand upright in them. They should be boarded
all round, except in front, where strong wire netting may be
employed—although, if the birds are at all wild, wooden bars,
close enough to prevent the inmates from escaping between
them, are preferable.

“5. Every compartment should have the top on the inside
padded with canvas, as, if this is not done, the birds are very
hable to injure their heads by jumping upwards.

“6. A movable feeding-trough should be fixed along the
front of each compartment ; one-third of this should be lined
with tin or pitch, or otherwise made to hold water; the
remaining two-thirds will hold the food.

“7. Coarse sand or gravel should be kept strewn on the
bottom of the cages, and a supply of this should be sent along
with the birds, as it is necessary to them for the healthy digestion
of their food.

“8. The front of the cage should have a piece of coarse
canvas to let down as a blind to keep the birds quiet ; and,
in order to give them air, round holes should be bored at the
back of the box in the upper part.

“9. The box should be cleaned out when the birds are
fed, through the opening in front made by removing the
feeding trough, care being taken that this opening is not
wide enough to let the birds escape.

“10. In order to supply the birds with green food during

the voyage, a few small trays (such as are used to hold the sand
H

98 Formation of Pens.

or gravel) may be sown with seeds, such as rape, mustard, or
any quick-growing vegetable. The green food thus produced
should be cut for them from time to time, and the sand and
roots afterwards thrown into the cages.”

For securing any recently-caught or very wild bird in such
a manner that it is unable to injure itself by dashing against

rast:

the sides or top of the cage, the plan used by falconers, and
termed brailing, is most effective.

To secure each wing, two pieces of string or tape of equal
length must be taken, and two knots tied, as shown in Fig. 1,

Fie. 2.

so as to form a central loop with loose ends. This loop must
be of a size proportionate to that of the wing of the bird to be
secured. When used, the loop is passed over the forepart
of the wing, and one set of loose ends are brought up behind,
between the wing and the body, and secured by being tied
to the other set, as shown in the lower figure. _ If this is properly
done there will be no pressure on any part of the wing, nor

Brailing. 99

need a single feather be ruffled or deranged ; nevertheless,
flight is entirely prevented, as the bird has no power of expand-
ing the wg. When properly brailed the wildest bird may be
placed on the ground, where it can run about freely, but without
the least power of flight. This plan is one of great utility in
the transport of very wild birds, as they are quite unable
to dash themselves against the roof or sides of the cage in
which they are enclosed.

I need hardly say that should a bird be confined a long
time in this manner it would be necessary to loosen the wings
alternately, otherwise a stiff or contracted joint might ensue.
This would be obviated by allowing the bird the free use of
each wing for a short period.

YNZ

H 2

CHAPTER VII.

Laying and Hatching.

F the laying in aviaries there is but little to be said.
GG The birds usually drop their eggs about at random,

consequently they should be looked after and collected
frequently, so as to prevent as far as possible their being
broken, which is almost certain to establish the destructive
habit of egg-eating. Sometimes, however, hen pheasants will
take to concealed nests, end instances are not unknown of
their sitting and hatching successfully in confinement. A
correspondent states : “‘ In 1852 I had a cock and three hensin a
small place (I will not dignify it by the name of an aviary, for
it is open at the top, and the birds are pinioned or have their
wings cut); one of the hens made a nest, and sat and hatched
five young ones. These, unfortunately, the other pheasants
killed directly they came from under the mother. In 1853 the
same hen sat again on eleven eggs, and hatched seven, when I
let her out into my small garden, and a better mother I never
saw ; she would allow no strangers to come near her without
flying at them. At the end of seven weeks the gapes killed
them all. It was a curious sight to see the old pheasant make
her nest of ivy leaves and hay, the former of which she always
used to cover her eggs with when she left her nest, domg so by
standing on the edge, and throwing the leaves over her
back. The same hen sat again in 1854.”

Mr. G. F. Woodrow (Keeper to the Earl of Denbigh,
Newnham Paddox, Lutterworth), wmting on the subject,
stated: “I have half an acre of young plantation inclosed
for a pheasantry and open at the top, so that the wild cock
birds can go in and out. I had over thirty hen pheasants and

Egs-eating. 101

three cocks, all with their wings cut. About ten weeks ago
a hen pheasant wanted to sit on the last egg that she laid ;
I took it from her, and disturbed her every day, but she
persisted in sitting without an egg for more than a week ;
at last I took pity on her. One evening when I had gathered
the eggs I put sixteen under her, and she sat and hatched
thirteen birds. She allowed me to lift her off the nest, and
I took her and her young and put them in a hen coop, and she
has reared them well, and, quite as tame as any of my hens
that I have rearing pheasants, allows me to drag the coop on
to fresh ground, and neyer flutters. As soon as I throw the
food in front of the coop she commences calling her young.
They are now about the size of landrails, and the whole of
them living.”

To prevent the fatal habit of eating the eggs, no care should
be spared, as it is entirely subversive of any hope of success
in rearing. As before stated, it may be in great part prevented
by the frequent collection of the eggs. Mr. F. Crook truly
remarks: “The male bird in confinement frequently takes
to pecking the eggs, at first only for want of something more
natural to do. Having no space, no fields and copses to
roam about and amuse himself in, he pecks and pushes the
egg about. At last it gets chipped, and he tastes of its
contents, and he will not then leave it until consumed, and
the abominable habit is confirmed in him. As it is usually
the male bird that commits these vexing faults, a loose hurdle
forming a corner pen, into which he can be driven, will be
found most useful, as he should only be allowed amongst the
hens after they have laid their eggs for the day; and all
having been removed, a wooden egg may be exchanged for
the real one, which will soon tire him out ; and the bad habit
may be cured, and no loss of time occur in the breeding season.
But whether the birds are troublesome or not in this respect,
the attendants must make periodical visits to the breeding
pens for the purpose of collecting the eggs, as they should
never be allowed to remain about.”

102 Laying and Hatching.

There is no doubt that bad management and improper
feeding tend to promote this serious evil. ‘The frequent
disturbance of the birds by the inquisitiveness of visitors,
bad and improper stimulating food, without a sufficiency of
green vegetable diet, want of cleanliness in the pen, and
insufficient or dirty supply of water, and want of grit to assist
digestion, all aid in developing the habit. Mr. J. I’. Dougall,
in his ‘‘ Shooting Simplified,” suggests the followimg mode
of preventing the practice when once established: “ In
pheasantries means should be taken to prevent the eggs
being destroyed by the male bird ; and as it is impossible to
keep continual watch, the hen should be induced to seek a dark
secluded corner by forming for her an artificial nest covered
thinly with straw. Under this straw have a net of mesh
exactly wide enough to allow the egg to drop through into a
box below, filled with soft seeds or shellings, leaving only a
few inches between ; the cock bird cannot then reach the egg,
which falls uninjured on the soft seeds below, and is safely
removed.”

Mr. Leno writes: “I have invariably found the cocks to
be the culprits. As soon as a pecked egg is found, the cock
bird should be removed, and the hens left by themselves for a
few days, to see whether he is or is not the guilty one ; before
putting in another cock with the hens, fill up the shell of the
broken egg with soft soap, which the fresh bird may try his
beak at. In case the first cock has been at mischief long
enough to teach the hens, there is no saving the eggs, unless
they are watched and the eggs picked up immediately they
are laid, or by partitioning part of the pen off, and straining
some galvanised wire netting across the enclosure six inches
off the ground, the mesh being of a sufficient size to allow
the eggs to drop through as soon as laid on to some moss or
chaff; the hens should be driven into the wired enclosure
early in the morning, and let out again late in the evening—
food and water, of course, must be placed in a small trough
for them.”

Sham Egés. 103

Mr. Fairfax Muckley, of Audnam, Stourbridge, says :
‘‘ My pheasantries are large, and of considerable extent. My
method is this: In the beginning of April I have a bundle of
larch bushes placed on each corner of the pheasantries, leaving
only room behind for one bird, and a little hole in the bushes
for the hens to creep into; then make a place on the ground
behind the bushes and put two or three sham ground glass
eggs, and also place a few anywhere about the pheasantries ;
they then become accustomed to see these sham eggs and try
to break them, but finding they cannot do so, they leave the
real ones alone. The hens are also induced to go into the
corners of the pheasantries and lay to the sham eggs. The
great thing is to have these in every way like real ones. Those
generally used are useless, being either too heavy or too hight,
and wrong in appearance. I may add that the oftener the
eggs are collected the better: but care should be taken not to
disturb the hens when behind the bushes. I had two very
fine cock birds sent me; they ate the eggs in the beginning,
but by continually having perfectly-made sham eggs before
them they are quite cured, and over one hundred eggs have
been collected out of their pens. It is a good plan, when a
hen has just laid, to take the egg away and put a sham one in
the place, particularly when you know they eat them. At
the end of the season have the sham egys collected for other
seasons.”

The glass eggs manufactured by Mr. Muckley are most
efficacious in preventing this destructive habit.

In consequence of the removal of the eggs as soon as
deposited, and the birds not sitting, the number laid
by the hens in confinement is greatly in excess of that
produced by them in a wild state, sometimes as many
as twenty-five or thirty being laid by one hen. This
extreme prolificacy tends to exhaust the birds, and it will
be found most advantageous to turn them out when they
have finished laying, and to supply their places by young
poults.

104. Laying and Hatching.

It not infrequently happens that a greater number of eggs
are required for hatching under farmyard hens than are
produced by the birds in the pheasantries ; in such cases the
surplus eggs in the nests of the wild birds may be advantageously
collected. This, however, may be done in a right or a wrong
way. ‘They should be taken before the hen pheasant begins
to sit; and if removed one at a time every other day as the
bird is laying, they are certain not to have been partly hatched.

Richard Jefferies, in a most graphic article on the pleasures
of pheasant rearing, describing the gathering of the eggs,
truly says: ‘‘ Unfortunately nothing is more easy to find than
a pheasant’s nest. Like a cockney looking for a home in the
suburbs, the hen pheasant seems to prefer a lively situation
near a thoroughfare, with a good view of anything that may
be going on. It needs no great practice to catch the glance
of the bright beady eye among the roots of the roadside
hedgerow, or to distinguish the grey mottled plumage among
the grass and nettles in the ditch below. Look under that
heap of fallen boughs, and as likely as not there are the green-
grey eggs dropped under the very outermost, where there is
scarcely a pretence to cover, although, had she taken the
trouble to force her way one half-yard further, the hen might
have laid them safe out of sight of all but ground vermin.
So by dint of poking about among the grass and the branches
and brambles, by looking under furze bushes and in hedgerows,
and in the cavities formed at the foot of tree trunks, you may
come upon a good number of nests in the afternoon, should
birds be tolerably plentiful. Very likely indeed you have
found too many eggs to be accommodated under the sitting
hens at your disposal. Some must be left, while other brood
mothers are sought. Whether on your second visit you find
those you left, as you left them, depends greatly upon cireum-
stances. If you have a profusion of rooks about your place,
the chances are much against it. For those omnivorous
gluttons have as decided a partiality for pheasant eggs as any
ball-going gourmand for those of the plover. They have

Richard Jefferies on Rooks. 105

overrun your woods. They sit swinging and cawing on each
projecting bough that commands a prospect. They walk the
slopes of your fields, one eye closely scanning the soil for
insects, the other sweeping all the points of the compass.
Nothing escapes their observation. When they see you out
for an object they follow you and mark each movement. We
have very little doubt they speedily learn to suspect your
intention, and when they see you stoop in a likely spot
they fly down to institute an investigation, whenever your
back is turned. In no other way can we possibly account
for the wholesale wreck of eggs that had been spared and sat
upon until you visited them in your walk. And if you doubt
who are the culprits, try the ordeal by taste, and strychnine
a nestful of eggs. You will find the bodies of the black
delinquents strewed round the fragments of the shells.
“Nothing can be prettier than the broods of young
pheasants as they are hatched off, tame as chickens—although
more graceful and active—running from the shell, and be-
ginning forthwith to peck about for a living. Unfortunately
there are other members of the animated creation who watch
their growth and their movements with even keener and more
immediate interest than yourself. Tor some four months to
come you mean neither to shoot nor eat your confiding
protégés ; but they are surrounded by sharp-set carnivora
who propose themselves that pleasure on the earliest possible
opportunity. We do not assert that those nuisances the
rooks are dangerous in this stage of the pheasant breeding,
although we should deem it imprudent to trust them too far.
And there a weasel is watching, popping his head at intervals
out of different holes in the neighbouring bank, undeterred
by the fate of several of his family, who have already been
trapped there and gibbeted. But more dangerous than hawk
or weasel are the jackdaws. For, as these vociferous birds
bear comparatively respectable characters, they are more
likely to be indulged with a licence they abuse. We know
them to be bavards : we cannot deny the family tendency to

106 Laying and Hatching.

kleptomania. But we are in the way of believing chattering
to be the sign of a frank, shallow nature, and we are apt to
condone the thefts that are perpetrated with no view to
profit. In reality, the jackdaw is a deep hypocrite—a robber
and a bloody-beaked murderer. He chatters his way from
branch to branch above the coops with the most unconcerned
air in the world—just as a human thief walks, whistling, with
his hands in his pockets, towards the prey he means to make
a snatch at. Then, when he sees himself unnoticed, the
jackdaw stills his chatter and makes his stealthy swoop ;
and in this way, watching while your watcher’s back is turned,
he massacres a whole family of your innocents, and the hawks
and weasels get the credit of the crime. But, after all, a gun
kept upon the spot generally inspires a salutary dread.

‘“Many of your young birds survive the perils of their
cheeperhood ; then the long grass in the neighbouring bits
of covert becomes alive with them, and once in that stage
they are comparatively safe. Thenceforward till the autumn
they feed and thrive, strengthen and fatten. And, sport, sale,
and the autumn game course out of the question, what can be
pleasanter or prettier in the way of sounds or sights than
the young birds learning to crow in your coverts as you
saunter out before breakfast, or scattered about your lawn as
you dine, with open windows, of a summer evening ? ”’

The most successful mode of rearing pheasants is to adopt,
in those situations where the conditions are favourable, what
may be termed the more natural system, such as was followed
most successfully for many years on the estate of the late
sir Walter Gilbey.

The details of the management will show that the success
was due simply to the pheasants being reared under natural,
sound sanitary conditions. The number raised annually
varied between 5500 and 4000. The largest covert on the
estate is closely wooded on heavy, damp, unfavourable land.
It is eightv-two acres in extent. Then there are two others,
one of fifty-six acres and another of thirty-two acres, and in

Pheasants at Elsenham. 107

addition there were some three or four hundred birds dispersed
on other parts of the estate. No birds whatever were penned
up. They were all allowed to lay in the coverts, and the eggs:
were collected and hatched under farmyard hens. It is easy to.
appreciate the strong vitality of the eggs, and the strength of
the chickens which they produced, when they were collected
from well-fed birds flying under natural conditions in the open.

In order that an abundance of eggs should be produced,
the wild pheasants were fed freely for about six weeks before
they began to lay. They had barley meal mixed with a
certain proportion of Spratt’s erissel for the first morning
meal, and afterwards soaked wheat and oats. Of the latter
birds are particularly fond. As fattening food is not advan-
tageous for laying birds, no maize was used. ‘The eggs were
collected daily, and a sharp look-out kept for the rooks, which
one season destroyed more than 500 eggs, in addition to
nearly fifty eggs from the hen turkey birds, which were allowed
to nest out and rear their young while in the coverts, the
turkeys and pheasants agreeing perfectly well together.
When the young pheasants were hatched the coops under
which they were placed were not crowded together, as is too
commonly the custom, but placed at long distances apart,
never nearer than thirty yards, consequently the young
pheasants had free and untainted range, and found insects
and food for themselves. For the first nine or ten days they
were fed three times a day, and this was done so judiciously that.
no stale food was left from one meal to another. The food
consisted of barley meal of the best quality, boiled eggs rubbed
through a coarse sieve ; while biscuit meal was also used, with
some crissel rubbed up with it.

There were no bottoms to the coops, which were moved
on to fresh ground twice a day, morning and night, so that the
young birds never rested on foul ground. The fronts were
not closely shut up, as is too often the case, but a board was
placed against them, and they were painted white, a colour
which, being strange, is not appreciated by foxes.

108 Laying and Hatching.

The covert annually yielded about 2000 head of game,
a figure attributable to good management, inasmuch as the
soil is heavy, and in wet weather particularly damp. No
quack remedies were used in the feeding of these birds, which
were amply supplied with grit, the particular variety employed
being fine granite. This was most greedily taken by the
birds, and was purchased by the truck load. Granite contains,
in addition to the extremely hard quartz, which assists in the
grinding of the food in the gizzard, other minerals essential
to healthy growth, such as lime, potash, iron, &c., m the form
of felspar and mica. There is another point to which I may
eall attention. At the end of the season the head keeper
carefully went round the coverts, and any bird that he could
detect showing the slightest sign of having been wounded,
or that was not in the pink of condition, was at once dispatched,
so as to leave nothing but healthy and vigorous birds to breed
from.

Now, it may be asked, to what was the long continued
success of the pheasants on this estate due? There can be but
one answer. To the good sanitary arrangements, and to the
rational method of feeding and management adopted by an
unusually intelligent keeper. So far from this system being
expensive it is exceedingly economical, and the result is as
satisfactory as it is possible to conceive, for there were more
strong, vigorous, and healthy birds produced on this estate
in proportion to the acreage than on any other with which
the writer was acquainted. On several of the estates not far
distant, many of which possess greater advantages than
Elsenham, disease was most prevalent, and, of course, in such
cases, there is always the danger of birds suffering from the
typhoid epidemic coming into the coverts, and tainting the
soil by their excrement.

It is hardly necessary to state that great care was taken in
selecting broody hens. No fowls with the infectious skin
disease known as “ favus’”’ were ever chosen, and hens with
seurfy legs, which invariably infect the young pheasants, were

Healthy Broody Hens. 109

rejected. The result of the sanitary precautions dictated by
common sense was that, though a very large number of birds
were reared on the estate, infectious enteritis never appeared
amongst them, and the birds, bred naturally, were strong,
hardy, and vigorous.

Old hens, it should be remembered, are sometimes the
carriers of coccidiosis ; the disease does not affect the adult
bird, but is disseminated by the droppings, and in this way
sets up among the young birds a most infectious and fatal
form of enteritis.

It should be explained, finally, that the above description
refers to the system which was in use at Elsenham before
the European War. Since the war no pheasants have been
reared by hand at Elsenham, and ali the pheasants shot have
been wild birds.

The Elsenham method may be contrasted with that pursued
by another well-known breeder, who proceeds on a very different
system. I refer to that which has been recommended by
Mr. Christopher W. Wilson, of Rigmaden Park, Westmorland,
of keeping laying pheasants in small movable pens, which can
be easily shifted so as to be over fresh ground. These pens
are made with close sides of thin din. boards, the exact dimen-
sions being 9ft. square and 3ft. high, and covered at the top
with 23in. string netting. Into each is placed a cock pheasant
and six hens. No further shelter is provided as the exposure
to the rain is, as is well known, not injurious to these birds.
The eggs are collected every time the birds are fed, and the pens
are shifted daily on to fresh ground.

The plan is said to have proved exceedingly successful,
one breeder, who has used the method for seven years, obtaining
40,000 eggs from his pens, each containing six hens and a cock.

The advantage of making these pens of thin light wood is
manifest. They are cheaper to construct, costing only 10s.
each complete ; the sides, when the pens are taken to pieces
for storage during the winter, occupy much less space, and
the wood, being thin, does not absorb so much water during

L10 Laying and Hatching.

rain, and is dried quicker by the wind and sun ; and the pens
are readily shifted by one person. The eggs are removed by
shifting the netting at the top, and taken out by means of a
small 3in. or 4in. landing net.

There are many localities in which such a plan would be
exceedingly convenient. It is needless to say that the sanitary
precaution of shifting the pens every day should be rigidly
insisted upon. If the ground is allowed to become foul by
keeping the birds on the same space for several days, disease
would inevitably ensue ; but, small as the space is, in conse-
quence of the birds being continually over fresh, untainted
ground, I am assured they do exceedingly well. I should
have imaged that the number of birds in so small a pen
would have been too great, but I am told that six hens have
done as well in these small movable pens as a less number.
Although I have had no experience of this mode of keeping
pheasants, not having seen it put into practice, I think it is
-quite worthy of the attention of all pheasant rearers ; therefore
I have great pleasure in publishing this account. It is obvious
‘that the plan possesses one great advantage over the use
-of large open pens—namely, it is not necessary to pinion tke
birds or cut the wing feathers, consequently at the end of the
laying season they can be let out into the open with full
security against the attacks of dogs and foxes. The pens
can be strengthened by a small lath or bar screwed across
each corner, and to this can be tied a spruce branch, under
which the hens can lay, and the netting, I should have said,
is most readily secured by being tied down to 1din. screw
eyes. Another advantage arising from the plan of frequently
shifting the pens is that a supply of fresh grass is provided by
each movement.

There can be no question of the advantages which follow
from the system of picking up eggs from wild birds on the estate
on which they are to be shot. But this can only be done on
an extensive scale on estates where the stock of pheasants
themselves, as at Elsenham, is numerous. It may happen on

Re-stocking Coverts. Lae

other estates that the stock of hens is insufficient to supply the
number of birds which the owner wishes to rear. Some people
believe in reducing the stock to the lowest numbers possible,
and beginning with a fresh stock each season. Others find—
and this must have happened in many places owing to the war
—that the stocking of coverts has to be begun de novo. In
these cases the only course is to buy eggs. When this book
was first published, the practice of buying eggs was discouraged
by the writer, as it was found to lead to dishonesty on the part
of gamekeepers, and to many and various forms of poaching.
Such practices, unfortunately, have not altogether disappeared .
to-day, although less frequently in the case of keepers. But
the system of buying and selling of pheasants’ eggs, long
before the war, had developed into a large and legitimate
business. Game farms were formed on an extensive scale,
and game farming became a recognised industry comparable,
though on a small scale, with poultry farming. A certain
number of game farmers, indeed, confident in possession of
their own laying hens and rearing fields, welcomed inspection
by potential buyers ; and a final stage was reached when, in
1910, the law of the land was altered so as to legalise the
position of all game farmers in certain respects as to keeping
and offerimg for sale game birds during the close season.
Doubtless, among many honest traders there still remained
exceptions ; but as regards those in the larger way of business
the whole thing was perfectly open and above board, and was,
indeed, a great convenience to owners of shootings.

The war put an end, for the time being, to trade in game
birds and eggs, and it was obvious that, even given an increased
number of persons wishing to rear pheasants after the war,
it would be long before the business could be put on a prosperous
footing again. However, since the Armistice matters have
gradually improved, and a market in pheasants’ eggs has
again been established, though with prices considerably
increased. Would-be purchasers of eggs may be cautioned
against dealers who rely on private circulars rather than the

112 Laying and Hatching.

publicity of advertisement: but by dealing with firms of
acknowledged reputation and long standing, they may be fairly
sure that they are obtaming eggs which have been laid in the
pens of those who offer them for sale, and not poached from
the coverts of their neighbours, or possibly, indeed, from their
own.

Various opinions are offered as to the breed of fowls most
suitable fer use as sitting hens. There can, however, be no
doubt that it should be one of a moderate size, and not too
prolific in egg producing, as it is essential that the mother hen
should keep with the poults as long as possible, which she is
not likely to do after she recommences to lay. Silky fowls are
strongly recommended by some, and they unquestionably
constitute admirable mothers. M. Wekemans, of the Antwerp
Zoological Gardens, where rare pheasants used to be reared
more successfully than in any similar establishment in Europe,
has employed half-bred silkies; and the late Mr. Stone, of
Scyborwen, fully endorsed his practice. These half-bred
silkies are good sitters, admirable mothers, and keep a long
time with the young. The ordinary bantams sometimes
recommended are undoubtedly too small, not being able to
cover the poults when of any size. The employment of pure-
bred game hens is strongly recommended by many breeders
of pheasants, as they will defend their chicks against any
enemies that may attack them, though their natural wildness
renders their management somewhat difficult at times; any
small, tame, ordinary hens will answer if known as good
nurses, and none others should be employed.

Hens with feathered legs are not desirable, as they are
very frequently afflicted with what is known as “ scurfy legs,”
a very obnoxious disease, which is caused by minute parasites
that breed under the scales, causing rough swellings. These
parasites extend to the young pheasants, and many coverts
are infested with scurfy-legged pheasants in consequence.

It is still too common a custom to set the hens in close
boxes, with little or no ventilation, crowded together in

Sitting Boxes. 113

sitting houses. Under these conditions the nests swarm
with vermin, the sitting hens become irritable and break their
eggs; and when the young pheasants come out they are
infested with fleas and lice, and are nearly devoured alive.
Moreover, the dry, stifling air of these places is destructive
to the vitality of the unhatched birds, numbers of which die
in the shell either before or at the period of hatching. Every
poultry keeper knows that no nests are so prolific: of strong
healthy chickens as those that the hens “ steal’ under
hedges or in copses or concealed places, from whence they
emerge with strong flourishing broods that put to shame the
delicate, sickly younsters reared in the close air and dry

a ce cai
a ri eos
Ses: ay WY

HATCHING BOX. BOX AND RUN COMPLETE,

over-heated nests of a hatching-house. The nearer we ‘can
imitate Nature the better—and if the hens hatching pheasants’
eggs can be set on the ground, covered over with a ventilated
coop—-more for concealment than warmth—and this sur-
rounded by a wire run, into which the hen can come out,
feed, drink, and, above all, dust herself, at her will, the eggs
will be found to hatch out much more abundantly than when
they are set in the vermin-infested, crowded pigeon-holes
adopted by many keepers. Such nesting boxes may be of
cheap and simple construction, as illustrated. The nest
should be on the ground, there being no bottom to the box ;
and if the sides and the wire work are sunk into the earth
and the latter is sparrow- and rat-proof, the hen may be
supplied once daily with food and water without entailing

any further trouble. But some dry ashes should be given
I

114 Laying and Hatching.

in which she can dust herself, and it is needless to say that
the larger the wire enclosure can be made the better.

In confirmation of my views on the subject of hatching
I haye much pleasure in quoting the following practical
observations of Mr. F. Crook, who states :—‘‘ The fault
usually existing is, that an over-careful, pampering system
is adopted, and miserable broods are the result. I have
experimented in a manner which leaves no doubt upon the
subject. Upon one occasion I was anxious to test the fertility
of certain pheasants’ eggs, and continued to remove the eggs
from a nest in the woods until I found the hen desirous of
sitting. I left twelve eggs in the nest, and I sat thirteen
at home under a hen; the pheasant brought out twelve
birds, while at home I only had three miserable birds. Similar
results have many times occurred since. As a rule the home
hatching-places are too confined in area, the hens are fed too
near the nests, and are not compelled to remain off the eggs
long enough, and no amount of wetting or sprinkling with
water, either hot or cold, recommended by some writers, will
compensate for a due supply of fresh air. Birds in the woods
select a dry spot, sheltered from the rains as much as possible.
Sometimes they will carry dry leaves, soft, short straw, hay,
and feathers; at other times the nest is made in a hollow at
the root of a tree, and the eggs are laid on the loose mould ;
or under thick bushes, and covered with coarse grass; but
in every case the nest is never stifled, having the freest circula-
tion of air surrounding it. If such natural precautions alone
are used, greater success may be looked for at home than
when the nests are made up in quiet, warm, small places,
where the birds have but little room to move, and the eggs
get nothing but a fcetid atmosphere to destroy the life that
lies beneath the shell. The term of incubation of pheasants’
eggs varies considerably. I have hatched them at home at
all times from twenty-two to twenty-seven days, but in the
woods they invariably turn out about the twenty-fourth day.
Those which hatch at the most natural time of twenty-four

Marking and Testing Eggs. L15

days turn out to be the finest and healthiest birds. There is
some care required in marking the dates and number of eggs
set in each nest for hatching, as by a little forethought in
this respect great advantages may be obtained by saving
time and retaining the services of the sitting hen. Over
each nest the date should be distinctly pencilled, thus —.1*,~
which means fourteen eggs were set on April 16, 1906.
About the ninth day the eggs should be examined, and all
those which appear perfectly clear, as when first set, should
be laid on one side as useless for hatching, but as perfectly
good for feeding the poults.”’

This examination of the eggs after they have been sat
on for a few days is very desirable, as those that are
unfertilised may be removed, when they serve as food for
the poults, and leave more room for such as contain live
birds.

Many instruments dignified by the title of oviscopes and
egga-testers have been devised for this purpose, some with
lenses, others with reflectors, ete. I have tried the whole of
them, and do not find them superior to the following simple
contrivance, the description and engraving of which is
reproduced from my work on “ Table and Market Poultry ” :

“The most simple egg-tester is made out of a piece of
cardboard ; the cover of an old book answers very well. An
oval hole should be cut in it, not quite large enough to allow
an egg to pass through, and if the cardboard is white, one
side should be inked or painted black. The eggs are more
conveniently removed from the hen at night, or if in day
they should be taken into a room from which daylight is
excluded. A single lamp only should be used. The card-
board, with the darkened side towards the observer, should
be held near the chimney of the lamp, and the eggs, one after
another, should be held against the hole. Those that contain
chickens will be observed to be quite dark and opaque, except
at the larger end, where the air-space exists. These should

be replaced under the hen. ‘Those that have not been
12

116 Laying and Hatching.

fertilised, and are consequently sterile, are sufficiently
transparent to allow the light to pass through, and look as
fresh eggs would if examined in the same manner. Such
eggs are usually termed ‘clear.’ These clear eggs are
perfectly good to eat; but it is preferable to save them for
the food of the chickens when hatched. Throwing them
away 1s a wasteful proceeding.”

It is evident that setting two or more hens on the same
day is advantageous, as the “clear ”’ eggs may be removed

Ze
2

a

4
‘”"
“*, eo.
p

METHOD OF TESTING EGGS.

from the whole of the nests, and the number in those that are
deficient made up from the other nests, a fresh batch being
placed under the hen the whole of whose eggs have been
removed.

The conveyance of eggs for the purpose of hatching is
tolerably well understood by the most experienced breeders.
There is nothing equal to a good-sized basket in which they

Pheasants’ Eggs under Turkey Hens. |17

ean be placed, surrounded with and separated from one
another by hay. Boxes with bran, sawdust, cut chaff, etc.,
are very inferior, as these materials shake into smaller
compass by the jolting of the journey, and the eggs fre-
quently come into contact and are broken.

Sometimes circumstances may occur in which it is desir-
able to exchange the eggs of fowls and pheasants temporarily ;
there is no difficulty in so doing. Pheasants’ and partridges’
eggs may be taken from their nests, and others substituted.
The exchanged eggs may be placed under common hens.
As soon as the pheasants’ eggs show symptoms of hatching,
they are replaced in those nests which have not been
forsaken, with very good results. The exchange is much
more likely to succeed with pheasants than partridges ;
with the former it is almost a certainty. The advantages
are many, and all on the keeper’s side, as he may turn out
with the old birds larger broods than they otherwise would
have hatched.

In those cases in which the nest of the pheasant
is in a situation lkely to be disturbed, the plan may
be advantageous; but, in ordinary circumstances, the
eggs had better be left unmolested, as the hen pheasant
is almost certain to bring off a larger number of chicks
than would result if the eggs were shifted under a farmyard
hen.

In some parts of Germany turkey hens are employed to
hatch pheasants ; the eggs are collected and placed under
the hens, which make excellent mothers, and are capable of
hatching and rearing twice the number of poults that a barn-
door hen can raise. From the great success that has attended
the introduction into England of the American plan of
allowing turkey hens to lay, sit, and rear their young in
the open, I should strongly advise the placing of pheasants’
egos in the nest of a turkey hen that has sat herself in some
hedgerow or covert, and letting her rear the young pheasants
uncooped, and at perfect liberty.

118 Laying and Hatching.

Mr. Rowland Ward, a very practical pheasant rearer,
writes as follows: “‘ | wish someone interested in the rearing
of pheasants would set a turkey on some of their eggs, and
when these have been hatched out allow the old bird to roam
as it pleased, and to find the food for its brood as wild
pheasants would do. I am sure the experiment would, in
some people’s hands, prove most successful, notwithstanding
the use of such a big hen for the purpose.”

The disparity between the size of the turkey hen and the
young pheasants may appear too great to afford any hope of
success, but, as I have said, the plan is followed in Germany,
and in France turkey hens are largely employed to hatch
chickens, and those only who have noticed the deliberate and
delicate manner in which the foster parent puts down her foot
when tending her young will not wonder at the success of the
system advocated.

CHAPTER VIII.

Rearing the Young Birds.

too strongly impressed on the inexperienced pheasant

rearer, 1s never the reward of those who practise
perpetual intermeddling with the sitting hens. All inter-
ference at the time the eggs are hatching is injurious ;
nevertheless, there are fussy people who cannot imagine
that anything can progress rightly without their assist-
ance; when the eggs are chipping they disturb the fowl to
see how many are billed; this is generally resented by the
hen, who sinks down on her eggs, and most probably crushes
one or two of them, and thus renders the escape of the young
birds almost impossible. It is perfectly true that sometimes
an unhatched bird, that would otherwise be unable to extricate
itself, may be assisted out of the shell and survive, but
it is no less certain that for one whose life is preserved in
this manner a score are sacrificed to the meddling cuniosity of
the interferer.

The chicks should be left under the hen till they are
twenty-four hours old without being disturbed ; by this time
the yolk which is absorbed into the intestines at the period of
hatching will have been digested, and the young birds
become strong enough to run from under the parent hen.
If the fowl is set in one of the coops with a wire run such
as I have recommended, she had better be left alone, and will
leave the nest herself as soon as the chicks are strong enough
to follow her. The ridiculous practice of taking the young
birds as soon as hatched, dipping their bills in water or milk

Stoo et in the rearing of young birds, it cannot be

120 Rearing the Young Birds.

to teach them to drink, and forcing down their delicate throats
whole peppercorns or grains of barley, is so opposed to
common sense that it does not need to be refuted. When
young pheasants and fowls are hatched in a state of nature,
they are stronger and more vigorous than those reared under
the care of man (unless, indeed, the season be so wet as to
be injurious to the wild birds), although they have to seek
their first food for themselves. Nature is far cleverer than
man, but unfortunately the latter has not always the sense
to perceive the fact. The nearer we can imitate her in our
arrangements, the more successful we shall be.

With regard to the first food of the young chicks, there
is nothing superior to a supply of fresh ants’ eggs (as they
are generally termed, although, strictly speaking, they are
the pup, and not the eggs of the insects). For grain, I can
strongly recommend, as the first food, a good proportion of
canary seed in addition to grits and meal. Grain when
once crushed or bruised has its vitality destroyed, and it
then undergoes changes when exposed to the air; the
difference between sweet, new oatmeal and the pungent,
biting, rancid meal that is often found in the fusty drawers
of the cornchandler is known to all persons accustomed to
use oatmeal as food. This change, however, does not occur in
the entire grain as long as its vitality exists, and hence the
whole canary seed, which is readily devoured by the young
pheasants, 1s almost certain to be fresh and sweet. More-
over, the husk contains a larger proportion of phosphate of
lime, or bone-making material, than the centre of the grain,
and is, therefore, better adapted to supply the wants of the
growing birds. The first food preferred by young partridges
is the seed of the crested dog’s tail grass (Cynosurus eristatus),
with which their crops will often be found quite full, and
there is no doubt it would be an equally advantageous food for
young pheasants, but is not as readily obtained as canary seed.

To afford a supply of artificially prepared animal food,
most of the books recommend hard-boiled eggs, grated or

A Good Custard. 121

chopped small, to be mixed with breadcrumbs, meal,
vegetables, &c. Nothing, however, can be less attractive to
the young birds than the food they are frequently condemned
to exist upon. I have often seen pieces of the chopped white
of hard-boiled egg, dried by the sun into horny angular
particles, refused by the young birds, although on these, with
breadcrumbs also dried to brittle fragments in the sun, many
persons attempt to rear young pheasants—and necessarily fail.
The best substitute for ants’ eggs is custard, made by beating
an egg with a tablespoonful of milk, and “ setting ”’ the whole
by a gentle heat, either in the oven or by the side of the fire.
The clear eggs that have been sat on for a week answer
perfectly well. No artificially prepared animal food can
surpass this mixture. The egg supplies albumen, oil, phos-
phorus, sulphur, &c.; whilst the milk affords caseine, sugar
of milk, and the requisite phosphate of lime and other mineral
ingredients ; moreover, these are all prepared and mixed in
Nature’s laboratory for the express purpose of supporting the
hfe and growth of young animals, and combined as custard
form a most soft, sapid, attractive food, that is eagerly
devoured by the poults. Irom my own long experience in
rearing many species of gallinaceous birds, I am confident
that a very much larger proportion can be reared if custard
and canary seed form a considerable proportion of their food
for the first few weeks, than on any other dietary whatever.

Many rearers of pheasants are strongly in favour of using
curd, made from fresh, sweet milk put on the fire, and when
warm turned or curdled with alum, and then put into a coarse
cloth, which is to be twisted or pressed until the curd is a
hard mass. There are several objections to curd as food.
The alum is a powerful astringent, and is not a natural diet
for ‘young birds. The curd so made only contains two of
the constituents of the milk, namely, the caseine and the
cream. The whey, containing the sugar of milk, the saline
ingredients, and, above all, the bone-making materials, is
rejected, whereas. when the milk is made into custard, the

122 Rearing the Young Birds.

whole of the constituents are retained, and to them is added
the no iess valuable ingredients of the egg. There is, in
fact, no comparison to be made between the nutritive values
of curd and custard.

Gentles or the maggots of the bluebottle or flesh fly are
used by some keepers. They are generally obtained by
hanging up in the woods, at a distance from a human habita-
tion, some horseflesh, a dead rabbit, or the bodies of vermin
that have been killed, and the gentles are allowed to drop
into a tub of bran. The plan is necessarily offensive. A
much better plan, in situations where it can be employed, is
to allow the dead bodies of any animals to become thoroughly
fly-blown, and then to bury them a few inches in the soil,
as previously described. It is obvious, however, that this
plan cannot be pursued where the pheasants are reared under
hens confined in coops. Maggots can also be procured in the
neighbourhood of the sea coast by adopting the following
plan, recommended in Cornwall Simeon’s “ Stray Notes on
Fishing and Natural History.”

“Tt is not, I think, generally known that maggots admuir-
ably adapted for feeding young pheasants and _ partridges
can be procured from common seaweed. This should be
taken up as near low water mark as possible, placed in a heap,
and allowed to rot about a fortnight, after which it will be
found swarming with maggots, rather smaller than those bred
in flesh. The keeper from whom I learnt this dodge, a man
of considerable experience in his vocation, tells me that he
considers them, as food for young birds, superior to flesh
maggots, inasmuch as they may be given in any quantity
without fear of causing surfeit.”

When the hens are cooped, as is necessary where numbers
of pheasants are reared, a good supply of fresh vegetable food
is absolutely necessary ; and I believe that nothing surpasses
chopped lettuce, which should be running to seed, and con-
sequently milky, as the pheasants take to it much more readily
than they do to onions, watercress, etc., or other green food.

Vegetable Food. 123

The greater the variety of food the better; therefore, in
addition to the articles before spoken of, a little crushed
hempseed, millet, dari, and coarse Indian corn meal, if fresh,
may be added.

As the mode of treating pheasant chicks by different
breeders varies considerably, it is desirable that I should
indicate the management which has been found successful
in other hands. I will first quote the directions of the Jate
Mr. Bartlett, the superintendent of the gardens of the
Zoological Society, Regent’s Park. This paper was written
for Mr. D. G. Elhot’s “ Monograph on the Phasianid,”’ and
I beg to return my thanks to these gentlemen for permission
to quote it im extenso. Mr. Bartlett writes: ‘‘ At first the
chicks require soft food, but not very moist. One of the
best things to give them is hard-boiled egg grated fine, and
mixed with good sweet meal, a little bruised hempseed, and
finely chopped green food, such as lettuce, cabbage, water-
cress, or mustard and eress. Meal mixed with boiled milk
until it is like a tough dough, sufficiently dry to crumble
easily, together with a small quantity of millet and canary
seed, is also excellent for them. A baked custard pudding,
made of well-beaten eggs and milk, is likewise of great
service to the young; and, if the season is wet and cold, a
little pepper, and sufficient dry meal to render it stiff enough
to crumble, should be added before baking. Ants’ eggs, meal
worms, and grasshoppers are also very useful. The first
of these are easily obtained in a dry state, in which con-
dition they can be kept many months, and are invaluable.
Care should be taken that fresh and finely-chopped green
food should be given daily. Many persons are in the habit
of giving gentles to young birds; there is great danger in
these; and I merely mention them, without recommending
their use; for, unless the person who gives them will take
the trouble to keep them for some time in moist sand or damp
earth until they have become thoroughly cleansed, they are
apt to cause purging. Many valuable birds have been lost

124 Rearing the Young Birds.

by the incautious use of gentles freshly taken from the
carcase of some dead animal ; but if well cleansed by keeping
ten or twelve days after being removed from the flesh, a few—
a very few—may be given in case no better kind of insect
food is at hand. The treatment of the young birds, such
as change of food, &c., must greatly depend upon the judg-
ment and skill of the person who has charge of them.
Much also depends upon the locality, the state of the atmo-
sphere, the temperature, the dryness or wetness of the season,
the abundance or scarcity of insect food, and other con-
siderations which must serve to guide those in whose eare the
chicks are placed.”

The mode of management pursued by the late Mr. Douglas
is somewhat different. He truly remarks: “ Although food
has a great deal to do in the rearing of pheasants, attention
has almost an equal share ; and without the attention required
being given, food would be of little avail. I will commence
with the hatching. Never remove your hens until the
chicks are well nested, guarding the nest to keep any that
may be hatched before the last chick is strong enough to
leave the nest. Never take the first hatched from the hen—
it is wrong: nothing is so beneficial in strengthening a chick
as the heat of the hen’s body. Let feeding alone for the
first twenty-four hours after the first chick is hatched ; the
large quantity of yolk that is drawn into the chick within
the last twenty-four hours of its confinement in the shell is
sufficient for its wants during the time specified. Next, have
your coops set on dry turf two or three days previous to
your pheasants being hatched; it will save a little hurry
when wanted ; also it will keep the spot dry, that being so
necessary on the first shift from the nest. If your turf is not
of a sandy nature, sprinkle a handful of sand where you
intend to shift your coops. The coops being shifted daily is
very beneficial to the chicks. Take care they are not let out
in the morning until such time as the sun is well up, if there
is a heavy dew on the grass, and the grass has got a little dry.

A Successful Menu. 125

I have no doubt but the continual lettimg out on wet grass,
previous to the sun having power to counteract the bad effects
of the cold wet dew, is the cause of many of the ills they are
subject to. Feed twice or thrice, if necessary, previous to
letting out. The principal food I give for the first fortnight
is composed of eggs and new milk, made as follows: In pro-
portion, one dozen of eggs, beaten up im a basin, added to
half a pint of new milk; when the milk boils add the eggs,
stirring over a slow fire for a short period to thicken, when it
will form a nice thick custard. This I give for the first three
days ; then I commence to add a little of the best oatmeal,
and any greens the garden can produce, finely chopped, for
the next three or four days; after seven days I add to their
diet a little kibbled wheat—being kiln-dried previous to kib-
bling—also split groats and bruised hempseed, occasionally a
handful of millet seed; taking care all their food is of the
very best, and that the feeding dishes are scalded in boiling
water daily. This food I use until they are about
three weeks old, when I add minced meat mixed with
oat or barley meal, with the broth from the meat, the meat
being composed of sheeps’ heads and plucks, taken from the
bone and finely minced, and just sufficient of the broth to
form a dry crumbly paste. At five weeks old I consider a feed
of good wheat and barley alternately, the last thing at night,
quite necessary, not forgetting, at this age, to add a little tonic
solution of sulphate of iron to their water daily. At this time
the growth of their feathers requires a great deal of support,
and if the bodily strength is not-supported by a strengthening
diet they must give way. Continue the custard up to eight
weeks old, but adding more meal to it, with the green food.
Give one sort of food at a time (just so much that they eat
it clean up), and attendance every hour from the time you
commence to feed until shut up for the night. Change the
water repeatedly during the day.” The choice of a field or
eround on which to rear pheasants depends upon simple
considerations, but it is not always easy to fulfil all the

126 Rearing the Young Birds.

requirements, however obvious they may be. The rearing field
should be sunny, sheltered, and dry. Old pasture which has been
cropped by sheep is the best, for it will contain the natural
insect food so necessary to the health of the young birds.
The grass should be short, and the coops placed in rows,
fifteen to twenty yards apart—the more room the better—
and the coops should be shifted a yard or so every day. ‘The
coops may be placed in position a few days before they will
be needed, so as to protect the soil beneath them from damp.
Place them, if possible, facing away from the wind ; and when
the hens with their broods are first taken to the rearing-field
each coop should be provided with a wooden wire-covered
run, as deseribed below, so that the chicks may become used
to their foster-mother and recognise her call. Later a few
green boughs may be substituted for the run, which will serve
for shelter and for shade from the sun.

With regard to the coops employed for the hens with
young pheasants, a form much recommended is one made
like a box, 8ft. long, 2ft. wide, and 2ft. high in front, sloping
off to 1ft. high at the back, and having a movable boarded
floor that may be employed if the ground be wet. The birds
ought to have a further space of about two yards square to
run in, fenced in by sparrow-proof wire netting. A good
coop of this kind is shown in the cut. The inclosed run,
which is proof against rats, sparrows, &c., affords a sufficient
space for the exercise of the young birds a day or two after
hatching, after which the coops should be placed without
the wire runs in the spot where the young birds are to be reared,
the grass, if high, having been mown around some short time
previously, so that the young shoots and tender clover may
be growing for the use of the birds. The advantages of
these arrangements have been very ably set forth by Mr. T. C.
Cade, of Spondon, Derby. He writes: “‘ There is a great
saving of food, as small birds are excluded by the wire
netting; and it is also practicable to put down a good
supply of food at night, so that the young pheasants

Coops with Runs. 17

may be able to feed as soon as they wake, and not
be kept waiting, according to the usual plan, for two
or three hours during the long summer mornings before
they are let out. My birds are never shut in the coop
at night, the wire netting being sufficient protection against
vermin and eats. I do not know whether any of your readers
have ever accompanied their keeper on a hot summer morning
when he is letting the young birds out of the coops. Jf not,
let them do so, and but put their noses within a foot of the
coop and [ will venture to say that they will never allow such
cruelty again. More than a dozen birds confined, perhaps

MN 8 8g
WN BER
HU

COOP WITH MOVABLE SPARROW-PROOF RUN.

for ten hours, in a dirty, ill-ventilated box, containing less
than half a cubic yard of air. No wonder that they look
languid and drooping, and that it takes them half the day to
recover. J am far from insisting that the birds should at all
times be kept in these small yards. When they are more
than a week old I would, in fine weather, raise one of the sides
and let them roam at their will, of course replacing the board
at night. But in wet weather and in the mornings before
the dew is gone, I would keep them up, and not run the risk
of their getting draggled and chilled with running on the
wet grass.’ When shut in at night, which is often necessary
to avoid loss by weasels or rats, etc., they should be let out
at daybreak in the morning.

Many keepers prefer rearing the young pheasants under
hens that are tethered by a cord to a peg driven into the ground,
with an open shelter coop into which they can retreat at night
and during rain.

128 Rearing the Young Birds.

In tethering hens used for rearmg young pheasants, a
jess, such as is used by falconers, is generally employed. A
piece of thin, flexible leather, about eight inches long, by
something less than lin. broad, should be taken, and three
openings cut in it, as shown in the diagram, which is one-half
the required size. The part between A and B should be
placed round the leg of the hen, the sht A being brought
over B, then the end C should be passed through both slits,
care being taken that it goes through A first. It should be
pulled right through, when it will be found to make a secure
loop round the leg of the hen, which she can neither undo by
picking nor tighten by pulling. The cord of the requisite
length is then tied to C. and fastened to a peg driven in the
ground, which should be put a sufficient distance from the

coop to allow the hen to take shelter in it in case of need. A
hen pegged down in this manner will become perfectly accus-
tomed to the circumstances, and will proceed to scratch for the
chicks in a very few minutes.

In tethering hens with young pheasants near an open
coop I have recently been made acquainted with a knot
which renders the jess unnecessary, requiring only a piece of
soft, stout string to be used. This, if properly tied, as shown
in the drawing, cannot be tightened round the leg of the
hen so as to injure her, whilst it admits of ready application
and removal. It is tied as follows: Near one end of the cord
by which the hen is to be tethered a slip loop is tied, as shown
at A, and the two ends are then tied together in a knot at B.
The cord should be so arranged that the loop A is about an
inch long.

The proportions are shown of the correct size in the
engraving. When it is wished to apply this to a hen the loop

How to Tether Hens. 129

ean be enlarged by sliding
the slip knot down the string Cation
towards B, when the loop will oy

become sufficiently large for Kg
the foot of ahen to be passed
through. On returning the slip \§
knot to its former position, \&
the loop is round the leg of the |
hen, but cannot be tightened ‘8
by her pulling, and is readily AS
taken off and put on again as RR
required. The free end of the =
string may be as long as is LD,
desired, depending on _ the
amount of space over which
it is wished to allow the hen
to roam. At its extremity
should be a peg, which can
be forced into the ground
firmly enough to prevent the
hen pulling it out.

An open, sheltered coop
should be placed near her,
under which she can retreat
at night and during rain.
The coop should not be put
so close to the peg by which
the hen is fastened that she
ean walk round it, but near
the limit of her cord, so that
she can pass in and out, but

Ahm
ibe
fo a)

4

A

not round the back. When .
thus fastened the hen is able ¥
to seratech the _ surface of IS

the ground and supply her rt)
young with the seeds, grubs,

130 Rearing the Young Birds.

worms, and natural food which is so much more beneficial
to them than any artificial substitute that can be given. The
young pheasants, even when two or three days old, will be
observed scratching for themselves, and the progress that
they make when reared under these conditions is out of all
proportion to that made when the hen is kept cooped up and
the birds are fed on the hard, soiled, dirty ground. The
pegs and coops can be shifted daily, so that the young birds
are always on fresh ground.

A very practical correspondent, writing from Kildare,
says: ‘There can be no better place to put young birds
when newly reared than a large walled-in vegetable garden.
I always place mine, hencoop and all, near a plot of cabbages,
gooseberries, or raspberries, where they have good covert and
feeding, and, above all, are protected from any injury at
night during the period of their jugging on the ground,
which they do for some time before they fly up to roost.
By feeding them at the coops four or five times a day, they
will stay in the garden until fully feathered, and able_to fly
over the wall to the adjacent coverts. I have had hen
pheasants that nested in the garden and hatched under goose-
berry bushes, coming to my whistle to feed regularly every
morning. If the young birds are put out into the covert,
the hen and coop (as in the garden) should be brought with
them, and laid in a ride close to some very thick covert ; they
should be fed there about four times a day, beginning early
in the morning, and diminishing as the birds grow strong.
I feed them at this period on crushed wheat and_ barley,
boiled potatoes chopped fine, some boiled rice and curds, all
mixed together.”

A very vexed question with regard to rearing of the young
birds is the supply of water. Some very practical keepers
give no water whatever; others give a very little; whilst a
third set keep up an abundant supply.

One correspondent says: ‘‘ I know a keeper who rears a
great number of pheasants each year, and he does not give

In a Kitchen Garden. eal

them water till they are seven or eight weeks old, at which
age they begin to eat barley and corn, and require water to
assist digestion. He says that pheasants in their wild state
take the dew in the mornings, and only in very dry weather
do the old hens take their broods to water. In very dry
weather, when there is little or no dew, he sprinkles water
twice a day on the grass, but never puts any down for them
until the time before stated, and when he waters the hens
he does not allow the pheasants to drink.” The writer of the
following letter holds the balance very fairly between the
opposing views: “Much depends on the nature of the food
upon which the chicks are fed as to whether they should have
water or not; if they are fed on dry food, and the weather
is warm and dry, they will require water, but it must be very
clean, and given only once a day, and must not remain before
them longer than to allow each bird to have a little. If the
birds are fed on moist scalded food, they will not require any
water unless the weather is very hot, when a little may be given
as before stated. Birds reared on heavy clay land will require
less water than those reared on sandy gravel soil; atten-
tion must also be paid to the amount of dew which falls,
supposing the birds are set at liberty before the dew has time
to evaporate. Those who argue that nature should be the
guide on this point must recollect that the rearing of pheasants
by hand is altogether an artificial process, and that therefore
nature cannot be strictly followed with regard to water any
more than with regard to food.” A well-known game preserver
writes on the subject as follows : “* My keeper is a very successful
breeder and rearer of pheasants. It seems to me (for I watched
his proceedings very closely) that he gives the birds the very
smallest supply of water. He carries a bottle in his pocket
when he feeds, and puts about a wineglassful into each hen’s
saucer. The hens seem thirsty enough, and leave but little
for the young birds. He feeds very sparingly, but frequently,
throwing the food wide. He has brought up a great many

pheasants and birds for me. One year, strange to say, out
K 2

132 Rearing the Young Birds.

of 211 he did not lose one. Certainly the season was favour
able. Little water, and food thrown wide round the coops,
seems to be his system.”’ The scattering of the food on clean
soil may be regarded as the most probable source of his success.

I am strongly of opinion that in this, as in all other respects,
we cannot possibly do better than take nature for our guide.
When hatched out naturally, there is no doubt that the birds
obtain a plentiful supply of water. Even when there is no
rain, the cloudless skies are productive of heavy dew, and
the young birds may be seen drinking the glistening drops
off the grass in the early morning. Some persons maintain
that the ova of the gapeworm are taken in with the water
gathered from dewdrops on the grass; others suggest that
they occur in rain-water, but there is no foundation for either
of these theories, as the disease is strictly local, which would
not be the case if it were disseminated by a flying insect, by
dew or rain-water, or by any animals inhabiting running water.
Much evil is produced by allowing the young pheasants to
drink water contaminated with their own excrement, which
is always the case if the water vessels are so constructed
that the young can run into them ; where such water is used,
there can be no doubt of its injurious quality, but I cannot
imagine that fresh, clear water can be otherwise then beneficial
to the birds.

A correspondent, who is a most successful breeder of
pheasants on a large scale, and whose young stock are in
splendid order, writes: “I may give as my opinion that it.
is necessary to their health to have fresh spring water.
Indeed, my man last year used to go to one particular spring
to supply his birds, as it was better water. In their wild
state, immediately they are out of the nest, the hen conducts
them to the water, and in our wild Devonshire hills, where
a streamlet runs in every valley, you can always see the well-
defined paths of the broods to and from the water. I have
just asked my man, and he tells me that so well are their
water-loving propensities known that poachers in large

Nature as Guide. 133

breeding places always net in dry weather any springs within
reach of the coops, and often with success.”” Another authority
says : ‘‘ lam strongly opposed to attempting to rear pheasants
without water, as against all nature; but my keeper adheres
to his own opinion that for at least some weeks they should
have it only once a day, bringing forward cases of broods
hatched in dry fields where no water flows. My idea is that
in a wild state they can wander in search of dew, and also
feed upon more moist and natural food than the egg, meat,
and herbs that are chopped for them when reared under hens.
Tam aware that it is quite a common practice amongst keepers
to deprive the little birds of water, and I cannot but feel it
to be a cruel as well as a mistaken one. I believe that dry
food wants water to aid digestion ; and when birds are kept
all day in small wired enclosures in the full blaze of the sun,
it seems to me that they must require water to keep them
healthy ; and I also think that if they have a little always
in the pen they will drink less than when only given to them
once a day. I saw a brood last week that had only had
water once, quite early in the morning ; they were being fed
again in the evening, but would eat nothing. I then ordered
some water to see what they would do, and the little birds
and the old hen went to it at once, and seemed as if they could
never have enough.” And a third, writing to me on the same
object, states: “I have been a rearer of pheasants for nearly
thirty years. I give mine an unlimited supply of water at
all stages of their growth, and I consider that it would be
great cruelty to withhold it from them. I do not consider
broods brought up by their mothers in dry fields where no
water is to be found at all to the pomt. How can our poor
artificial foods compare with the thousand and one varieties
they find in nature, full both of nourishment and moisture,
with which it is impossible for us to supply them in confine-
ment ? I quite endorse your suggestion as regards the great
value of lettuce for pheasants. I have fed them for some
years with it, and they are very fond of it.”

134. Rearing the Young Birds.

It may be added, finally, that Dr. Hammond Smith, who
writes with authority on any question connected with the
health of game birds, gives it as his opinion that water should
certainly be given to young pheasants—‘‘it is most cruel
not to do so, and quite against the laws of nature, whatever
some keepers may say.” He adds: “ The water should be
given regularly and be always available, for if the birds are
allowed constant access to it they will drink far less than when
given water only at intervals. If the latter plan be adopted
they may drink such quantities when allowed to do so as to
produce diarrhcea. All water-pans should be kept clean and
frequently scoured.”

The removal of pheasants from the rearing-field to the
covert which is to be their home is a matter which demands
some care. It is a process which should not be delayed too
long, for when the birds are getting big—say, when they are
nine or ten weeks old—they may not go into the coop at night
to sleep, and it is when they are shut up for the night that the
keeper will wish to remove them to the selected ride in the
covert. This is a simple process if the coops are provided
with wooden bottoms, for all that will then be necessary is
to lift the coop bodily into the cart which is to take the birds
to covert ; but if the coops have no bottoms, sacking should
be quietly drawn underneath, giving the birds plenty of time
to get their footing, and the sacking is then nailed to the sides
of the coop. The coops are then taken to the nde, and in
the morning should be opened gently and food should he
given at once, so that the hens may call their chicks, and all
of them may become used to their new surroundings. Later
on, when the birds begin to go up to roost, some of the hens
may be taken away. Needless to say, a careful watch should
be kept in regard to foxes, and the young birds should be
encouraged to roost as soon as possible. A very good plan
is to make use of elevated coops as shown in the accompanying
illustration. This system is not only a protection against
foxes, but induces the young birds to fly up from the ground.

COOP BUILT ON PLATFORM.

The birds in wet weather do not roost on wet soil and are protected
from foxes,

Taking to Covert. 135

When once they have the habit of flymg up into the lower
branches of trees, roosting at a safe distance from the ground
follows as a matter of course.

Inquiry is frequently made as to the cost of rearing pheas-
ants in numbers. It is very difficult to state even an approxi-
mate sum, so much depends on the conditions under which
they are raised.

However, some interesting correspondence on the subject
was published in the Field during the months of March and
April, 1922, and as the letters written at that time referred to
the interesting period of, so to speak, reconstruction which
followed the War, and as they were typical of conditions prevail-
ing in different parts of the country, and under different
systems of management, they may usefully be summarised.
Mr. A. Hinksman, a practical gamekeeper, writing from
Withington, Chelsford, Cheshire, says :—

I have reared, and assisted to rear, many thousands of pheasants, and have
kept accounts for a good number of years. I will give the figures for 1920,
when pheasants cost more to rear than in any other year in my experience.

I find, on referring to the account book, that the total food account is
£210 from May 1 to Nov. 1. This covers all foods for 1000 pheasants taken
to woods, and foods to maintain them to Nov. 1, also all foods for 100 hens
for sitting, both in sitting yard, on rearing field, and in woods until their
disposal, when no longer required. I think this works out at something
like 4s. 23d. per bird. I have compared prices for foods then and now and
find reductions varying from 9s. to 14s. per ewt. on game foods, corn for
hens and pheasants when full grown. The 1920 prices for maize and mixed
corn are reduced from 45s. to 48s. per sack to 29s. to 32s.

Before the War I find, taking the same period and number of birds, the
price works out to about 2s. 6d. per bird. An important factor to
remember is how you rear and how you place your birds in covert. «I find
that if you are rearing a good number all in one place you can rear cheaper
than if you are working with two or more rearing grounds. But the
greatest economy is to be effected by methods of placing birds in woods.
If they are placed in suitable batches, say of 500 to each place instead of
in small batches all over the place, the saving in food is a big item. I find
that as a rule keepers in charge of small batches of birds take far more food
per bird than when feeding larger batches.

In conclusion, I would say to all gentiemen whe run a shoot, do not
trouble about the cost of one particular item. It is the cost for a year,
and the amount of sport resulting that counts. Get the best man you can
for your keeper, tell him how much you can afford to spend on your shoot,
ask him what he can get you for that amount, and I think you will find
you are generally on the right side.

136 Cost of Rearing.

One great difficulty which many keepers have to contend
with is the necessity of preserving foxes side by side with
pheasants in a hunting country. — It is, therefore, interesting to
compare with other accounts the figures of one who has dealt
successfully with this difficulty, and described his results in the
Gamekeeper of February, 1922—Mr. W. Appleyard, of Burley-
on-the-Hill, near Oakham, Rutlandshire. He gives the figures
for the two seasons, 1920-21 and 1921-22.

SEASON 1920-21.

Pheasants turned into the woods 460. Killed, 411. (er ok
Rearing foods and pen feeding: .... 2... ..))sc-a2ee sees 40 0 O
Hard:corn for covert feeding © 25.25.4055 sels due ait sere 12) 18-16
Rearing field! (hire)) )o< « 2séitdcjou,d).ans alerts s esas ee > 9 0
Three days’ shooting with beaters (beaters’ pay) ........ 10 4.56

£174 19 6
Single-handed, and twelve finds in the Meynell Hunt.
SEASON 1921-22.

Pheasants turned into covert 350. Killed to date, 332. £ s. d.
Rearing foods, and pen feeding, and sold 200 eggs ...... 38 15 0
Hard corn for'covert feeding: ~~... 23. 252. 2 cee ceee 90:12 6
Rearing field (hire) ..2.22. het es oie Oe SOO
Three days’ shooting with beaters (beaters’ pay) ........ Sido

£140 18 6

Single-handed, and up to date, fourteen finds for Hounds.

To these figures Mr. Appleyard adds the comment that his
annual book *‘ shows the returns in game killed *—that is,
presumably, game sold, not necessarily all pheasants, “* which
showed a balance on the credit side.’’ The above figures, of
course, show only expenses.

In a hunting country, where grass fields are the rule, the
cost of feeding pheasants necessarily must be high compared
with those incurred in an arable country, where the fields will
supply a considerable amount of insect and natural food. As
a contrast to the conditions prevalent in Rutlandshire, the
circumstances in which pheasants can be reared in Hampshire
may be considerably happier. An interesting and instructive

In Arable and Grass Countries. 137

letter dealing with these conditions is contributed by Sir
Alfred Herbert, who writes from Dunley Manor, near Whit-
church, Hants :—

This estate is undoubtedly unusually good, natural pheasant ground, as 1
think will be shown by the following notes regarding the pheasant rearing
and shooting for this year. There is a good stock of wild birds, and no
eggs are bought, and only what we call “ dangerous eggs” (by which we
mean those laid in places where the nests are likely to be disturbed or where
too many are laid together) are picked up.

The total number of pheasants reared and turned into the woods last
year was, approximately, 1000. The pheasants killed up to the end of
the season were 2676. The total cost of food was as follows :

faved:
Purchased game food for rearing ................ 28 7..6
Corn supplied from my farm at regular prices ...... 70 12 9

Total £99 0 3

I have not included cost of beaters, keepers, or other expenses, but have
confined myself to food alone.

These figures show that the cost per bird killed, for food, is 9d., whereas
your Rutland correspondent’s figures show that for 1920-21 the cost per
pheasant killed for food alone was 7s. 10d., and for 1921-22, 7s. 9d.

The bag of partridges for the season was 994, showing that the
partridges managed to do fairly well in spite of a rather heavy stock of
pheasants. It was, of course, an exceptional year, and the wild pheasants
reared strong and exceptionally large broods, and this in spite of the fact
that the drought was very severe, and there was a great lack of dew.
Dew pans are kept in the wood and, when necessary in very dry weather,
they are filled up at short intervals. My keepers use rabbits to a great
extent for feeding the young birds, thus reducing the cost of purchased
food. (The cost of rabbits is not taken into account, but their value is
very little in the early summer, nor have I included eggs, of which probably
about £4 worth were used.)

The oak woods were heavily infested with caterpillars, which form
excellent food for young pheasants, although their presence generally
results, as it did this year, in an almost entire lack of acorns.

I think the conclusion to be drawn from these figures is that if one
wants to rear pheasants cheaply it can only be done in a country which is
naturally adapted to the purpose, one of the requisite conditions being a
large area of arable land. In a grass country the results must be entirely
different.

We may place side by side with this letter another from a
grass country. Mr. Harry Carlton, writing from Market
Harborough, Leicestershire, says :—

The following balance-sheet of a joint shoot for 1921 from a different

point of view from that of your other correspondents may possibly be
of interest. Everything was against the ground from a shooting point

138 Cost of Rearing.

of view: the coverts consist of a very large wood with a few outlying
hollow spinneys ; the wood is not only a favourite meet of a fashionable
pack of hounds, but hounds are also continually through it ; it held at
least three litters of cubs, and rabbits had to be kept down ; there adjoins
the wood a more attractive covert going with another shooting where only
a very few birds were reared ; the lateness of the fall of the leaf necessarily
caused the first time through the wood to be unduly delayed ; in arranging
the shooting days meets of the hounds had to be considered, and on these
days stops were often unobtainable. A few hundred pheasants were
reared in 1920—there being very few wild birds left at the beginning of
that season—and owing to the great cost of each one of these shot the
question arose as to whether any rearing should take place in 1921. Owing
to the probable drop in the cost of hard food, and the probability that the
value of the pheasant for the larder would be fairly well maintained, it
was decided to catch up enough birds to provide some eggs for sale,
and about 1000 for rearing. Eight hundred birds were eventually turned-
out in the big wood, and 554 shot. The accounts cover the twelve months
from Feb. 2, 1921, to Feb. 1, 1922.

PAYMENTS. £- «sy ads
Rearing food, &c., and hard corn ..............-- 136 12 0
BYOOGY NEMS. ost, scot vee no ee oer eae eee So Sr
Rearing field and 4 acres of buckwheat............ 28 10"
oA Wis AKO). CG:

RECEIPTS.
Pheasantsevegus;:seld) ..c7202 Fist. ceete eee Ree 58> 0:70
Hen 55%) gym beK ane Saket bree ORE 5 10-70
iHlens:sold!: 2: .ad0: oes efor = SR PEhS- CER eee Lr Oeee
Pheasants sold ss . esa geisies oes Mae ee ee eee 7410 O
55 taken by guns) (walue) =< 2.2 eer eee eee AS: FSO
FLOSS Taw

It will be noted that the account is not debited with the value of the
pheasants caught up for penning, and I may add that such of the hens
bought in 1920 as did not fall victims to foxes were utilised when they
became broody.

The above balance-sheet shows that on the system adopted not only
did the rearing put the guns to no extra expense but resulted in a small
profit. It will be noted that—apart from the buckwheat which was
spoilt by the drought—the cost of food works out at about 4s. 4d. per head
of pheasants reared as against the 7s. 6d. of your correspondent rearing
in what would appear to be a somewhat similar country.

Another correspondent, writing from a hunting country in
the north of England, gives figures which are interesting as
showing the accounts of a shooting run as a syndicate. The
season is that of 1921-22.

A Syndicate Shoot 139
INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT.

Debtor. Sp ad.y s&h Gs
Meeremb OF TANG feld. -. 0.2... cceses sccccc see 30 5 0
», Wages, one head and three under-keepers .... 357 6 8
PESUMUIICS ere s,s ciciciseice ceo ee «holes eee. Tee 58 4 10:
55 Cbristmas boxes to keepers........5..00c e008 Sy 20
PRCIGiNES I or wlitiaid sie Ric oe aes ders See eeos chete WHE 40 0 O
<5 COT Saat Bap Oonn Or ene SEES rE peice wear 1418 2
»» beater’s wages, thirteen: days...........2s00 78 3 6
PAL OI SCOP (5) ht ki:si eee e wlerc s diss deleted db.er8 14 10. -1
PELCATTIO ACCOUNL CODE... 2 .c'c/scicick a</aicicivs set dives 202 10 O
»» chick food, including 286 rabbits at ls.each.... 91 0 O
CHITIAZO OL WELET 62 2 a)e' = <.c0e nym eisieje oin's 5,0, 410% oXe 140) 0
= COS 5 55 GAS OO AO SCI. Geen 184 10 O
SS IMAGTION stare vale cieie acs, ccc'(ecle «(eiie ioe nt/s ews oe SO) 4) ok:

530 41
peecpreeiation Of plant ......5....006c0ce.506 35 a Ea |
»» loss on sitting hens (re-sale) ................ 19 5 10
PeneetREnINSHTANCO: 51022 oS eiocik es Swe Se PsbS ats 3) 1B he
eenemployment INSUFANCE. 2% - = 0.2... es sees 014 4
» game given away valued at the day’s market

RIG MET a tela ie cle aie my ae wi sicnis nalsisle 2's. wavercynietess 24,55. 9
SU241 27
Creditor 5. )7s5, d=
Mem ERIRC ME SISICL 031 sci or bic Sela ehn\ i dic Cis ond aicinre shlodeotein ataeleicaree 431 6 4
s» game stock taken up in aviaries, hens 140, cocks 20—160,
aS Sor 55-1 2/2 25,1) >the wats bras tc Eble w Jalsa esl Stee 40 0 ©
33 balance, bemg net cost of shoot. .......5.c0.0c0cceces (GORGES
SU ZA aa
GAME ACCOUNTD.
GAME KILLED.
Debtor. Sic. gee ols
AHEASAM DS eer 2 cis-3 sid ays, o caciels i siet USAO} oct eile secre rars 381 14 4
SEEK TAKEN UP......2006.6c00 160
IATA oe a Sy «po. s/uie'S jos « UB hee rs a ee ea 9 4 I}
ISCRGT sate Sak. cBOr es ne aoe QO ai ois ctsee ene A etalne one 418 0
JOST es Se Ae apo etiyelercnieve coseieonoeie 4 0
GST a re 7 PIE Oks Gert ICEL 4 0
BPM eres oe, o)x\ys1s)s (che oiass'e> Say ¢ AT arcrnti ch ocersit eh 75 1 103
£471 6 4
HOW DISPOSED OF.
Creditor. 2 FNP
TELE Sa AR eS ie ee ree a a a 407 0 7
SUS COD NG aro UR Soa ge 24 5 9
SE esters a or alnicicsiovn ote See eee ee ere estes 40 0 0
a Al Gz!

140 Cost of Rearing.

I put down 3000 eggs, and put 2000 birds into covert, and accounted
in killed and stock for aviaries 1500. I invite comments on these figures.
I left about the same stock outside in coverts as previously.

Owing to the prolonged drought, great difficulty was experienced
with the birds in the early stages, and necessitated carting water at a
considerable cost, as shown above.

The game given away was entirely to the farm tenants on the beat.
All game taken by guns was charged at the market price of the day.
As will be seen by the number of days, the shooting was spread over the
season as far as possible, the biggest day being about 250 birds ; the object
being to get as many sporting days as possible.

I may add, I ran this shoot as a small syndicate, which explains the
idea of Christmas-boxes given in lieu of tips.

I am situated in the heart of a fox-preserving country, and always
had a good show of foxes, with the result that some record gallops were
enjoyed by the hunt.

In comparing my figures with those you publish in your issue of the
4th inst. given by Mr. Appleyard, I find in season 1921-22 he turns 350
birds into covert, and killed to date 332, presumably by end of season
100 per cent. of birds turned down.

My figures compare badly. I turn into covert 2000 birds, kill to end
of season 1340, and take up in aviaries 160—total 1500 birds accounted
for, or only 75 per cent. against Mr. Appleyard’s 100 per cent.

As regards feeding, Mr. Appleyard’s bill for rearing foods for
350 birds amounted to £38 15s.: His hard corn bill for covert feeding,
£90 12s. 6d.—£129 7s. 6d. My bill for rearing foods for 2000 birds, including
286 rabbits caught and charged at 1s. each, also expense of drawing water,
£7—£98 ; my hard corn bill for covert feeding for same quantity of birds
to end of season, £184 10s.—£282 10s.

Finally, in a letter which is applicable to pheasant rearing
in any part of the country, a correspondent writes as follows :

Don’t you think the cost of rearing a few pheasants can be just what
the master and man choose to make it ?_ I bred 203 last year to turn in
where there was a shortage, and fed regularly but sparsely until Jan. 10,
once a day from Noy. Ist. There were a lot of wild birds about which
shared the feed and the bag was 540, leaving a nice lot of hens. The food
bill for the lot, from the cradle to the grave, was £12 13s. The point I
wish to make is that if the stock of birds in any case is far less than the
ground will naturally support, as was my case, all that is necessary to
insure finding your birds when you want them is to feed very sparingly
but with absolute regularity as to time. I bought my feed from the
farmers, principally wheat, at from 50s. to 44s. a quarter of 504lb. The
young birds had three dozen eggs only, but the keeper killed a few rabbits
for them, which being a home product have not been charged against
them. The £12 13s. is the amount paid for eggs (hen), biscuit meal,
oatmeal, wheat, maize, and barley rakings.

The birds did well all along and were carefully looked after, but
encouraged to do for themselves. Anyway, there it is, the sum mentioned

The Main Point. 14]

is all I had to actually pay for food in cash. Of course, if you overstock
your coverts you must feed, and feed heavily if you wish to keep your
birds ; but even then, if you buy your stuff from the farmers, you will
save pounds and pounds.

This letter really sums up the situation as regards the cost
of feeding pheasants after they have been turned into covert.
If the covert is sunny, sheltered, and well supplied with water,
grit, berries, acorns and other natural food, the birds will
largely feed themselves, and also will stay at home. If the
covert lacks these necessities, the keeper will have to feed his
birds hard to prevent them straying, and, as a well-known
writer on game subjects has put it, “ hard feeding means hard
cash.”

VOrE

W\IGRMVOO

LCS
WON Vea AGN AGN

CHAPTER Ix.

The Diseases of Pheasants.
By H. Hammond Smith.

HEASANTS ina state of Nature are particularly hardy.
P Being bred, as they generally are, from strong healthy

parents, the few weakly chickens that are produced
die under that benevolent arrangement which has been so
justly termed the survival of the fittest in the struggle for
life. Consequently the most vigorous remain as_ brood
stock, and propagate a healthy offspring. Nevertheless,
in some seasons, particularly during those that are wet,
the young birds are affected by certain epidemic diseases
that are difficult either to prevent or cure; amongst the
first of these may be mentioned cold or catarrh, which
is generally caused by an undue amount of wet weather
acting on birds enfeebled by too close inter-breeding, or by
errors in the dietary and general management, such as undue
exposure to cold winds. All that can be recommended in
case of the young birds being thus afflicted is warm, dry shelter,
and the addition of a little stimulating food, as bread soaked
in ale, and spiced with any ordinary condiment, such as cayenne
or common pepper, and the moistening of the oatmeal, or other
soft food, with a solution of a quarter of an ounce of sulphate
of iron in a quart of water, using enough to give the meal an
inky taste. But the wild birds may also suffer from diseases
contracted from the birds reared by hand or from adjacent
poultry farms, such as gapes, coccidiosis, or enteritis, etc., and
while it is possible to treat these diseases when they occur on
the rearing field, it is exceedingly difficult to combat them when
they make their appearance among the young birds in the
coverts.

Tuberculosis. 143

Most of the diseases from which young pheasants suffer
are infectious ; and in all eases in which birds die from infectious
disease, or are destroyed to prevent its spread, the greatest
care should be taken not to leave the dead bodies exposed.
If this be done the disease is almost certain to extend ; it has
been proved to do so in the case of birds dying of tuberculosis,
gapes, and other diseases, especially coccidiosis. The dead
carcases should always be burnt. This cannot be too often
or too strongly insisted upon. When the body of a diseased
bird is simply buried, different beetles or insects feed on the
earcase, and may become carriers of the disease to other
animals that in turn feed on them. And again in the ease of a
disease like coccidiosis the disease 1s spread by the spores
of the protozéon that causes it, and it has been proved that
these spores may retain their vitality for even two years, so
that burning the dead bodies of birds that have died from any
disease should always be insisted on. if the bodies cannot be
burnt, they should be buried deeply, with a thick layer of
gas-lime round them in some part of the ground away from
where fowls or pheasants are reared. Hanging the dead bodies
of diseased birds in trees to produce a supply of gentles is
exceedingly objectionable and dangerous.

Tuberculosis.

One of the most common causes of mortality among adult
pheasants is tuberculosis. It is more frequently seen in aviary
birds, than amongst birds in the coverts ; but even amongst
these the disease has been known to occur, probably intro-
duced by birds that have been turned out of the aviaries
when suffering from it. The disease is most infectious, the
infection being conveyed by the excreta, containing the bacilli
of the disease, which contaminate the soil and so get on to the
food. The birds become anemic, dull, and emaciated, and
their loss of weight is so well known to pheasant breeders that
they are termed “light birds.” The definite diagnosis of avine
tuberculosis can, however, only be made by post-mortem

144 Diseases of Pheasants.

examination, and in many cases a bacteriological one is also
necessary. The disease is produced by a specific bacillus,
closely allied to, if not the same, as the bacillus which produces
human tuberculosis ; but changed by its environment. The
bacillus obtains entrance with the food and first causes tuber-
culosis ulceration of some portion of the intestinal tract, the
spleen and liver next become affected, and the bird becomes
thin and dies ; sometimes the affected birds show symptoms
of diarrhoea. The lungs are very seldom affected, though
it has been seen there, and also in very rare cases in some of
the lymphatic glands. The appearance of the liver is very
marked, being mottled with white nodules, from the size of a
pin’s head to that of a small bean, and the same appearances
are seen in the spleen, which may be very much enlarged ;
but care must be taken when examining the liver not to rely
wholly upon the microscopical appearance of this organ.
for a similar appearance is produced in some cases of bacterial
necrosis of the liver, and in some forms of coccidia, but in
neither of these two cases is the spleen affected, and a bacterio-
logical examination will always determine the difference.
Unfortunately there is no curative treatment for this disease
when once it makes its appearance, and the only thing to do
is to kill and burn all sickly birds and put the healthy ones
on to fresh ground, where they should be carefully watched
to note if any symptoms of the disease should develop amongst
them. It is even better to kill off all the old stock, and get
a fresh and healthy supply of birds, at the same time taking
care to burn all the old aviaries and to build new ones on
fresh ground.

Pneumonia.

Young pheasants are very lable to pneumonia. This
disease is sometimes very infectious, and during the cold and
wet seasons of 1909 and 1910 caused the death of a very large
number of young birds, attacking especially the later hatched
and weaker birds. Treatment of this disease is limited to

Roup. 145

keeping up the strength of the birds and, by so doing, increasing
their powers of resistance. This is best accomplished by
giving the birds an increased amount of meat nourishment in
their food, and by adding to their soft food once a day small
doses of sulphate of iron as a tonic, in the proportion of a
quarter of a grain to half a grain for each bird according to age.

Roup.

Roup or diphtheritic roup, which was at one time always
considered to be the result of a neglected cold, is now recognised
to be a highly infectious disease caused by a specific parasite,
a small micro-organism known as a coccidium, one of the group
of protozoa. In Messrs. Ward and Gallagher’s work on the
““ Diseases of Domesticated Birds” this disease is referred
to as “‘avian diphtheria,’ but it must not be confounded
with human diphtheria. Theobald in his “ Parasitic Diseases
of Poultry ’ shows that Messrs. Colin and Roux demonstrated
that the microbe of chicken diphtheria is not the same as that
which produces a similar disease in man.

The disease is distinguished by the appearance of white
creamy patches in the mouth and pharynx ; the surfaces of the
growths are slimy and the mouth and nostrils get filled with
discharge which becomes viscid and plugs the nasal passages.
In some cases the discharge spreads to the eyes, which become
inflamed and swollen, with the lids gummed together ; oceasion-
ally the disease may commence in the eyes. The inflammation
and growths in the throat, if not attended to, enter the
cesophagus and trachea and thus cause death. The birds affected
early show extreme dullness and loss of vitality ; they become
thin, and death may occur in severe cases in two or three days,
or the bird may linger for a week or more with progressively
marked debility. It is not a common disease among pheasants,
but it has been observed both amongst pheasants, quails
and various wild birds (Ward and Gallagher) ; but if it makes
its appearance in the aviaries the first step is to at once isolate

the infected birds, removing those that are healthy on to fresh
L

146 Diseases of Pheasants.

ground. A little salicylate of soda may be added to all the
birds’ drinking water, and the ground of the infected pen should
be watered with a 2 per cent. solution of sulphuric acid, or,
better still, dressed heavily with quicklime, which should
be allowed to lie on the surface for about three days and then
dug in. The treatment for the afflicted birds is to free the
mouth as far as possible from all growths, and dress the under-
lying surfaces with a strong solution of boric acid. The nasal
passages should be syringed out with a 3 per cent. solution
of boric acid, and the eyes and surrounding feathers and skin
bathed with the same solution. In early stages the disease
can often be cured so long as only the mouth is invaded ; of
course, as soon as the cesophagus or trachea is affected little
or nothing can be done, and the best plan is to destroy the bird
and burn the carcase.

Enteritis.

Fatal epizoétics of enteritis amongst pheasants may occur
from various causes. In 1809 Professor Klein first described
a fatal epizodtic occurrmg amongst poultry under the name
of ‘fowl enteritis,’ or the “ Orpington disease,” so called
from its appearance on a farm in Kent, on which the farmer
lost above 400 birds between March 1888 and 1889. Dr. Klein
stated the disease was highly infectious, from the evacuations
of the diseased fowls scattered on the ground contaminating
the food which is picked up by the others, and rapidly
spreading amongst the entire flock. The symptoms are severe
purging of yellow evacuations, and the bird is found dead
in one or two days. ‘The disease can only be checked by the
immediate removal of the uninfected birds from the tainted
ground, which should be disinfected with quicklme or, better
still, gas-lime, and well turned over, and, if possible, a crop of
some sort grown on it before being used again as a rearing
ground; it would be better to follow Dr. Klein’s advice,
namely, that no fresh stock should be put on the tainted soil.
Every infected bird should be destroyed and the carease

Enteritis. 147

burnt, not thrown on the ground, whence the germs (bacilli)
of the disease can spread.

In their work “ Diseases of Domesticated Birds”? Messrs.
Ward and Gallagher refer to an epizodtic of infectious enteritis
among the pheasants in the public gardens of Milan, observed
by Fiorontini, which occurred after a similar epizodtic among
the swans. The symptoms described by Fiorontini are
similar to those described by Dr. Klein, but the disease does
not seem to have been so rapidly fatal or so infectious.

The disease has also attacked pheasants in this country.
Some time ago a pheasant was sent to the late Mr. W. B.
Tegetmeier at the Field with the following letter, showing
how rapidly this fatal epizodtic may spread from an over-
crowded poultry run into the coverts. The writer says:

“T am sending you with this a young pheasant which
has been attacked with a disease that has unfortunately
destroyed a large number of birds which were placed in the
woods in a perfectly healthy condition. It is the general
opinion that the birds have been affected by a poultry farm
which is on the estate, as the fowls were known to be dying
in large numbers from a similar disease.”

On examination this bird was found to be affected with
every symptom of fowl enteritis. The intestines showed
redness in the mucous membrane; in the cecal appendages
there was a great amount of mucus, the spleen and liver
were enlarged, and there is no doubt that the bacteria or
microbes causing the disease could have been cultivated if
it had been thought necessary to do so. The writer of the
letter also asked for a remedy. The researches of Dr. Klein
and the experience of others pointed to one course, the destruc-
tion of the affected birds; and as it would be impossible to
destroy the bacilli on the tainted ground over a large extent
of covert, the rearing of pheasants should only take place in
fresh and untainted ground the following year. It is important,
therefore, to note that fowl enteritis infects other gallinaceous

birds, and that pheasants on overcrowded ground and those
L2

148 Diseases of Pheasants.

reared in the neighbourhood of crowded poultry farms are
liable to contract the disease.

Coccidiosis.

Pheasants also suffer, as many other birds do, from internal
parasites, any of which may set up a fatal enteritis. The
most important of these is a small protozoal micro-organism
found in the intestinal tract long known as Coccidium avium
(Silvestrini and Rivolta) and also as Coccidium tenellum
(Ruiliet and Lucet), but now, owing to the rules of priority
in zoological nomenclature, the familiar name of Coccidiwm
given to it by Leuckart in 1879 has been replaced by Eimeria,
the name originally given by Schneider in 1875. Durimg
the summer of 1910 a large number of young pheasants suffering
from enteritis were sent to the Field laboratory for examina-
tion, and in by far the larger proportion of them the disease
was found to be produced by this micro-organism. In the
“* Journal of Comparative Anatomy,’ 1894, Sir John McFadyean
described an epizoétic among young pheasants which occurred
in 1893, and which he attributed to the same micro-organism ;
and the symptoms as described by Sir John McFadyean
were the same as those seen in the birds sent to the Feld
in 1910. Dr. H. B. Fantham (Protozodélogist to the Grouse
Disease Inquiry Committee), who worked out the life history
of the parasite, describes similar symptoms in grouse that
were inoculated with this organism. The symptoms are loss
of appetite and weight due to emaciation ; in the early stages
of the disease the birds stand about with drooping heads and
wings, they become anemic, combs and wattles pale,
and the feathers appear pale and sometimes ragged ;
digestive troubles occur, the birds may occasionally eat
greedily, but the droppings become pale, softer than
usual, yellow or greenishyellow to white in colour, and
very offensive; there is almost always wasting of the
muscles of the breast; death is often sudden in its actual
occurrence.

Coccidiosis. 149

Infection is spread by means of the droppings ofthe birds
fouling the ground on which they are reared by means of the
oocysts, as they are termed, which contain the spores of the
parasite, and it must be remembered that these odcysts are
remarkably tenacious of life ; after being dropped on the ground
they may be picked up by other birds with the food, or with
grit, or in drinking water. Unfortunately they can be carried
from one field to another on the boots of a keeper, or the
wheels of a trap, and can also be conveyed by the wind. All
birds that die must be at once burnt, not buried, as when set
free by the rapid disintegration of the tiny corpses, the
odcysts would contaminate the soil, and the danger of such
contamination must be apparent, when we consider the
statement of Dr. Fantham (Field, July 29th, 1911) that
the coccidium odcysts may remain infective for as long as
two years.

As regards treatment, the infectious character of the disease
must not be forgotten. It is useless to commence the treat-
ment by moving the birds on to fresh ground, as they will
at once contaminate it, and it becomes a fresh focus for
the spread of the mischief. ‘The method which has been
found from experience to be effective is to give all the birds
a solution of catechu to drink instead of their ordinary drinking
water ; ten to fifteen grains of crude catechu should be dis-
solved in one gallon of drinking water; this solution may
darken in the air, but this makes no difference to its efficacy.
After a few days’ treatment the birds may be put on to fresh
ground, and sulphate of iron should be given as a tonic. This
may also be given in the drinking water, fifteen grains to the
gallon, or as a powder mixed with the soft food in the pro-
portion of one-sixth to one-fourth of a grain of sulphate of
iron per bird once a day. It is a wise precaution to give the
solution of catechu as drinking water to all the foster mothers
during the period of incubation, as they may possibly be the
carriers of the infection. Where feasible it is a good plan
to feed the chicks on movable boards, as recommended in

150 Diseases of Pheasants.

the Field (July 10th, 1910), which can be washed and kept
clean, and not to scatter the food broadcast on the ground.

The contaminated ground from which the birds have been
removed should receive a thick dressing of lime and, where
possible, the land should be afterwards ploughed up and a
crop taken off it before being used again as a rearing field.
The coops should be well washed with boiling water and
carbolic soap, disinfected with strong lvysol and fumigated
before being used again.

Dr. Morse, in the Farmers’ Bulletin of the U.S.A. Department,
suggests commencing the treatment by giving Epsom salts
in a mash, his estimate being one teaspoonful of salts for eight
to fifteen chickens, according to age and size ; but experience
has shown the administration of salts to be unnecessary unless
symptoms of constipation appear.

Worms.

Pheasants, like other birds, also suffer from enteritis caused
by other parasites, round worms and tapeworms, in their
intestinal tract. Of these, the former are the most common,
and most harmful in their effects. Both Friedberger and
Mégnin have drawn attention to a verminous form of enteritis
set up by tapeworms in pheasants, which may prevail in an
epizootic form, especially amongst young birds. The treatment
recommended is kamala mixed into a paste with hard boiled
eggs and bread, which should be given concurrently with ants’
eggs. Ziirn advises freshly-powdered areca nut in doses of
two to three grammes and pumpkin seeds. (Neumann.)

But the most common form of enteritis caused by intestinal
worms is that set up by small nematode or round worms
which are found in the intestinal tract, chiefly in the ceca.
These worms may be so small as to require a microscope
to find them, but are generally easily visible to the naked eye.
Those most commonly seen are two of the species Heterakis,
H. papillosa and H. vesicularis. When they are present the
lining membrane of the ceca is found to be intensely inflamed,

Worms. 151

and in severe cases that part of the intestine contains nothing
but blood-stained mucus; the liver also, especially in older
birds, may be the seat of bacterial infection, causing patches of
necrosis. ‘The symptoms are those of enteritis, namely, loss
of appetite, emaciation, diarrhcea, etc., but death does *not
occur so rapidly as in enteritis caused by coccidia. The diseases
caused by all these parasites are infectious, as the eggs of the
worms are passed with the droppings and may be picked up
by healthy birds with their food. The treatment for these
round worms is mainly preventive, moving the birds on to
fresh ground and paying great attention to the purity of the
water supply. As a medicine powdered santonin has been
found most efficacious, the dose being from half a grain to one
grain for each bird given with the soft food once a day.

Gapes.

Another nematode worm, which is found, not in the intes-
tinal tract, but in the respiratory tract of the pheasant is the
gape worm, Syngamus trachealis, which often causes great
mortality in the rearing field. This worm was first recorded
in 1799 by Dr. Wissenthal, who observed it at Baltimore,
U.S.A. In England it was first recorded by Montagu in 1806,
as occurring in an epizodtic form in pullets, pheasants and
partridges into which the parasite had probably been imported
from America. (Neumann.) Further investigations have
shown that it is by no means confined to gallinaceous birds,
but is also found in crows, magpies, jackdaws and many other
birds, especially starlings (Field, Dec. 9, 1911).

This parasite is found in the trachea of the birds infested
with it,andis known to many keepers as the “ forked worm,”
the male and female being found firmly adherent to one another,
the male forming the smaller branch of the fork. The worms
are red in colour, the males being from 3mm. to 6mm. in
length, while the females measure from 5mm. to 20mm., and
in the female the ovary can often be easily distinguished,
and irregularly dilated, when full of eggs. ‘The worms are found

152 Diseases of Pheasants.

adhering to the lining membrane of the trachea, chiefly near
its division into the two bronchii. The majority of the
parasites adhere so firmly by their buccal capsule that they will
allow themselves to be torn rather than release their hold ;
the point to which they are fixed is often formed into a small
tumour full of yellow caseous pus. The parasite seems
exceedingly fatal to young birds; Mégnin alleges that in an
epizoétic occurring in a pheasantry at Rambouillet there were
about 1,200 victims daily. It is not so fatal to adult birds,
and in adult birds very large specimens of the parasite have
been found during the winter months and as late as the month
of March (Field, March 26, 1910) ; these birds would naturally
become carriers of the disease and could spread the infection
on to the rearing fields.

The life history of the parasite, up to a certain point, has
been worked out by many observers, notably, Wissenthal, Dr.
Spencer Cobbold, Ruilliet, Mégnin and others. Connection
between the male and female takes place within the trachea
of the bird affected at an early stage of the life of the worm,
and once connection between the two sexes is established it
continues until the parasite is ejected from the throat or death
occurs. The male is fixed to the female by a strong membranous
sucker, and so closely is it attached that it cannot be separated
from the female without tearing. The eggs of Syngamus,
which can be clearly seen in the ovary of the well-developed
female, are elliptoid in shape, measuring ;1,1n., and in many
of them fully formed embryos may be seen. The ova and
embryos are not laid, but make their escape by the rupturing
of the body of the female, which as a rule is the result of
cadaveric decomposition after the worm has been expectorated
by its host, and some two or three days after the death of the
worm ; but this rupture may occasionally happen while the
worm is still in the trachea and before it is expectorated.
Both ova and embryo take up their abode in damp ground, or
on the edges of pools, or in and around the drinking vessels
of the birds, which is a very favourite locality. The eggs

Gapes.

153

hatch in from seven to forty days according to their surround-
ings and temperature. The ova and the embryos get taken up
by the young birds off the ground, or in the water, and possibly

a recently ejected female worm full of
well-matured embryos may be, and
often is, picked up and eaten, and in
this way birds other than the young
pheasants may convey the disease to
the rearing fields. In the trachea of
a jackdaw sent to the Field thirty-
seven fully developed gape worms
were found, yet the bird, when killed,
was in apparently good health.

The infection undoubtedly occurs
through ingestion. The exact manner
in which the embryo makes its way
from the csophageal tract into the
respiratory tract has not yet been
definitely ascertained; but on this
point there seems to be a general con-
sensus of opinion, namely, that the
embryo, whether swallowed as such or
hatched from the egg after the egg or
parent worm has been swallowed, finds
its way through the cesophagus or pro-
ventriculus into the lungs and so
into the trachea. Dr. Walker gives
instances of finding the embryo
in the cesophageal tissues ; M. Mégnin
shows that the embryo can easily
reach the air-sacs and bronchi from

GAPE WORM (Syngamus
trachealis) MAGNIFIED.

the cesophagus ; Ruilliet alludes to the various effusions found
in the lungs of birds suffering from gapes ; and very many of
the birds examined at the Field that were suffering from gapes
presented similar pneumonic symptoms; so that it seems
reasonably clear to conclude that the embryos, after being

154 Diseases of Pheasants.

swallowed, work their way from the cesophageal tract into the
respiratory tract from the pro-ventriculus or possibly the crop.

No intermediate host is necessary for the development of
this parasite as was once suggested by Dr. Spencer Cobbold.
Ehlers has shown that by feeding birds on Syngamus ova, or with
ova containing embryos, in about twelve days he found coupled
individuals, and after seventeen days females full of eggs.
Mégnin also in 1879 infected a parrot with gapes by feeding it
with a certain number of worms collected from the pheasants.

In treating the disease the first step is, where possible,
to isolate all infected birds and put the healthy birds on to
fresh ground ; all birds that die of the disease should be at once
burnt, not buried—burning is the only way to effectually destroy
the worms in the earease and their ova. All drinking vessels
should be well cleaned. and salicylate of soda, three drams
added to a quart of drinking water, is stated to kill the embryo
worms. In treating the disease many remedies are recom-
mended, but in dealing with pheasants it must be remembered
that generally large numbers of birds may be affected, and that
such remedies as removing the worms from the trachea of each
bird by manual efforts would be impracticable. Besides, the
handling of young birds is not unattended with danger, and
may have fatal results ; it is better to resort to methods that can
be utilised on a large scale and with more safety. The parasites
can of course be removed by a feather, and in America a treat-
ment by means of intra-tracheal inoculation has been success-
fully carried out (Ward and Gallagher), but all these operations
require time, individual attention and a considerable amount
of manual dexterity, and are not at all adapted for the ordinary
pheasant breeder, in places where large numbers of birds are
reared. The treatment most commonly adopted at the present
time is the insufflation of one of the various gape powders
now in use; the basis of most of these powders is lime and
carbolic acid, but many keepers make their own. Theobald
recommends a mixture of loz. of powdered chalk and 4oz.
of finely powdered camphor, which he says is the safest and

Favus. 155

most successful remedy he has tried, sprayed into a box so
that the birds inhale it.

Both Mégnin and Montagu advocate the administration
of garlic with the food. Montagu gave an infusion of rue and
garlic instead of water to drink. Mégnin gave chopped garlic
with the soft food in the proportion of one clove of garlic to
every six pheasants ; he also was fortunate in the employment
of powdered assafcetida given with an equal part of powdered
gentian, incorporated in a cake and given in the proportion of
.50 grammes per head per day. After the birds have been
removed from the field on which an outbreak of gapes has
occurred, the ground should be disinfected with lime and
ploughed up; Theobald recommends watering the ground
with a 1 per cent. solution of sulphuric acid; the ground
should not be used as a rearing ground the following year, and
all the coops should be fumigated and disinfected with lysol.

It should be remembered that when exposed to dry heat
the eggs and embryos of Syngamus soon dry up and become
withered, and this explains why on dry soils and in hot dry
summers the ravages produced by the gape worm are not
so severe as they are on moist soils and in wet seasons.

Favus.

Another parasitical disease which attacks poultry and has
also been known to attack pheasants and other game birds is
favus ; this is an infectious disease of the skin caused by a
special fungus Lophophyton gallinae (Mégnin), Tricophyton
mégnint (R. Blanchard). The disease generally commences on
the comb, or wattles, but it may spread to the skin, especially
of the neck and body, and more especially the cloaca and
adjoining part (Neumann). It appears first on the comb or
wattles in the form of small white or light-grey spots that
extend, multiply, and become confluent, forming crusts
covering the skin; these crusts gradually become thicker.
sometimes irregular in shape, often concentric. When this
covering is removed the skin beneath is seen to be excoriated.

156 Diseases of Pheasants.

Where the part attacked is covered normally with feathers,
they become erect, dry and friable ; lastly, the feathers fall off,
leaving the skin denuded and covered with crusts. The
disease is not as a rule a fatal one, but it brings on debility
and wasting and may terminate in death.

The treatment is to wash and soften the affected parts with
soap and warm water, and then to remove as much of the
deposits as possible, dressing the raw surfaces with carbolic
acid and soft soap in the proportion of one to twenty once a
day. Various other remedies have been tried, such as a mixture
of six parts of glycerine and one of iodine, or salicylic ointment
(1:10) ; but the carbolic acid treatment is the one in general
use. All infected birds should be at once isolated and treated,
and all the coops and runs should be thoroughly cleaned and
disinfected.

Scurfy Legs.

Pheasants hatched under farmyard hens are not infre-
quently liable to what are known as scurfy legs. This objec-
tionable disorder depends on the presence of minute parasites
(Sarcoptes mutans) which live under the scales of the legs
and upper part of the toes, where they set up an irritation,
causing the formation of a white, powdery matter, that raises
the scales and forms rough crusts, which sometimes become
very large. When these crusts are broken off and examined
with a microscope, or even a good hand lens, they will be
found to be filled with the female parasites, generally distended
with eggs. The crust itself may be compared to the crumb
of dry bread ; but the parasites are to be found only in those
parts which are kept moist by the skin. They appear to
cause great irritation to the bird. ‘This disease is propagated
by infection. It is seen in fanciers’ yards where the poultry
are closely confined together, and has been found affecting
turkeys, pheasants, partridges, and even small birds in aviaries.
The treatment is very simple. The legs may be soaked in
warm water, and the crusts removed, and the legs washed

Scurfy Legs. L574

with carbolic soft soap, as made for dogs; and the coops,
nesting-places, perches, all cleansed with limewash, scented
with carbolic acid. Great care should be taken not to use as
foster mothers any hens affected with the disease. If a Cochin
or other hen in the slightest degree affected with scabies is
employed, it is obvious that, as young birds are covered by
her, the parasites can readily pass from her to the chicks, and
the disease becomes disseminated.

The late Mr. Horne, of Hereford, a most practical pheasant
rearer, wrote as follows:

“ There is no doubt that birds hatched under Asiatic mothers
(feather legged) are most prone to these insects. I have tried

Scurry LeG PARASITE
(Sarcoptes mutans).
Magnified 100 diameters.

Male. Female, distended.

sulphur ointment, vaseline, glycerine, &c., but none was a certain
cure. At last I was told that common paraffin would speedily
effect acure. At that time I had a young bird (six months old) a
perfect cripple—knots in his joints like nuts. I at once apphed
the paraffin, pouring it well over the legs ; in a week there was
a great improvement, and after two or three applications the
bird became perfectly well. Since that time I have cured
many. I generally apply it once in a week or ten days. I find
the Versicolors and Reeves are the most liable to the disease, and
do not remember having ever seen a case of it on the Gold.”

158 Diseases of Pheasants.

The assumption of male plumage and other male character-
istics by the female pheasant is a phenomenon that has long
attracted the attention of all students of natural history. As
far back as 1776 Hunter, in his “ Animal Economy,” recorded
the case of a pea-hen, that had produced chickens eight several
times, when eleven years old assumed full male plumage, and
in addition had spurs resembling those of a cock ; Hunter also
described this change in “ Philosophical Transactions,” vol. lxx.,
p. 527, and it is also mentioned by Yarrell. Similar changes
of plumage have been noticed not only amongst gallinaceous
birds, but also in several other species. Sir J. Bland Sutton,
in his work on “ Evolution and Disease,” gives a list of over a
dozen kinds of birds in which the hen has been seen in the full
plumage of the cock. Gamekeepers generally speak of these
hens as “‘ mule birds,” and it is now generally accepted that
the assumption of male plumage is caused by or connected
with disease or atrophy or non-development of the normal
ovary. In old birds the ovary is often found to be in a state of
atrophy and represented by a small mass of black pigment ;
but in young birds the change has been noticed in those in which
microscopical examination has shown that the sexual
characters of the ovary have not been properly developed.
A specimen of such a case was received at the Field
in December, 1914, accompanied by a letter from a game-
keeper, im which he said: “* The bird I am sending you is one
of a batch of 200 reared in 1913—I first noticed it favouring
a cock in plumage—before it was fully grown, the most remark-
able feature being the darkness of the head and neck feathers
(no sign of a ring) and the ochreous tinge on the breast, other-
wise the colour was exactly that of a hen; it came unhurt through
the shoots, and I had it under almost daily observation until
we gave up feeding in Apmil this year. This year’s rearing
season—it began to come tothe coops for food and I was able
to see it had no young ones with it—I watched it carefully
all through its moults, and was able to see its gradually increas-
ing likeness to a cock, especially the well defined ring on the

Hens Assuming Cock Plumage. 159

neck.’ The bird was eventually killed about three quarters
of a mile from the plantation it was reared in, but in the same
wood. The bird was examined at the Field, December 21,
1914 ; it was a young hen in complete cock’s plumage, with the
sexual gland very imperfectly developed.

Disease of the ovary, attended by the assumption of male
plumage by the female pheasant, is a phenomenon that has
long attracted the attention of naturalists. It was described
by John Hunter in his “ Animal Economy,’ and in the
*“ Philosophical Transactions,” vol. Ixx., p. 527, and also by
Yarrell. Although gamekeepers frequently speak of the hens
thus changed in attire under the title of mule birds, it is now
generally accepted that the assumption of male plumage is
caused by disease of the ovary, and that the birds exhibiting
this change are barren females, not, however, necessarily old
birds, as the change of plumage may result frem ovarian
disease in a hen that has not laid. Exceptions to this rule
are, however, given by Mr. J. H. Gurney (Ibis, 1888) as
occurring in the merganser, chaffinch, and redstart. The
change of plumage takes place to a varying extent, usually
beginning with a slight alteration of the neck feathers. In
some cases it is absolutely entire, the hen being clothed in
perfect masculine plumage, not a single feather of the body
remaining unchanged. ‘This singular modification is not con-
fined to the common pheasant, but extends doubtless to the
whole group. It is recorded as occurring in the Silver Pheasant
(Euplocamus nycthemerus) in the Field of November 13, 1869,
and, in the case of a Golden Pheasant hen (Thawmalea picta),
given to Mr. Tegetmeier by his friend Mr. Leno, the meta-
morphosis was complete. Mr. Leno had this bird in his
possession for some years, and had noticed the alteration
increasing at each annual moult. A corresponding alteration
has been frequently observed in the female of the domestic
fowl and occasionally in the grouse, but it is not confined to
gallmaceous birds, sometimes occurring in the domestic duck
and other orders. That disease of the ovary should cause

160 Diseases of Pheasants.

the formation of feathers totally distinct, not only in colour,
but in form, from those previously produced (as is most
conspicuously the case of the tippet of the Golden, or tail of
the Silver Pheasant) is a very remarkable circumstance, and

ae a de

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i
wv
4

is

5

ed

SPURS DEVELOPED BY HEN PHEASANT.

one that has not yet received a satisfactory physiological
explanation. (See Hamilton, P.Z.S., 1862, February 11.)

A similar change, but in the other direction, viz., that of a
cock assuming female plumage, has been recorded, but in
very rare instances. Mr. J. G. Millais mentions a case in the
Ibis of 1897; the Hon. Walter Rothschild has one in his
collection ; and three others, in which the change was very

Hen Pheasant with Spurs. 161

marked, were exhibited by Dr. H. Hammond Smith at the
meeting of the Zoological Society, February 11,1911. In these
last cases the sexual organs showed no deviation from the
normal.

In one particular specimen of a hen pheasant assuming male
characteristics, shot in 1922 by Mr. L. H. St. Quentin, the
peculiarity lay in the fact that while the plumage was almost
entirely that of an ordinary hen, except that the feathers on the
breast were of a slightly increased tawny shade, the bird had
well-developed spurs on both legs. The bird was evidently
an old one, in very good condition, weighing 2? lb.; both
feet showed signs of previous injury, probably from a shot
wound, the toes of the right foot being deformed, while the
hallux of the left foot was missmg. Upon internal examination
the ovary was found to be completely atrophied, being repre-
sented by merely a small mass of black pigment the size of a
pea. ‘This case is very curious, as although the ovary was in a
state of complete atrophy, the only external, well-marked
sign of any male characteristic was the development of the
spurs, and but for the presence of the spurs the bird might
have escaped notice.

A correspondent writing to me from Argyllshire forwarded
the body of a young pheasant, in which the skin was distended
to an enormous extent with air. The circumference of the
neck immediately behind the head was 5in., at the base of the
neck 7in., and round the body 10in. No other evidence of
disease was perceptible on post-mortem examination. The
bird, an early hatched one, was in very good plumage, having
already moulted two of the primary wing feathers. My
correspondent stated that his keeper found several birds in the
same condition. The bird, when alive, was in the same
bloated condition as when forwarded. ‘This case was evidently
one of traumatic emphysema, the result of accident and not of
disease. From some cause or other one of the air cavities which
pervade to a greater or less extent the bodies of all birds, and

even extend into the bones, had become ruptured, and the air
M

162 Diseases of Pheasants.

during the breathing of the bird had escaped under the skin,
distending it to the extent described. This rupture of an air
cell might have arisen spontaneously or from some injury. In
either case it was not necessarily fatal. If the keeper had
made one or two small punctures of the skin at different parts of
the body the air would have escaped, and the bird in all
probability would have recovered ; but it was so distended
that it could not even feed itself, and the crop and intestines,
although perfectly healthy, were destitute of food. Such
cases are not very uncommon, but, as they usually arise from
accident, it is remarkable that in this case several should have
occurred amongst the birds in one locality. The cases are
usually perfectly isolated.

It not infrequently happens that large numbers of young
pheasants die of mysterious ailments, the causes of which
are very difficult to determine. When they have been ascer-
tained, they have been occasionally traced to some injurious
- substances taken as food. In one case that came under
notice the destructive agent was sheep’s wool. A correspondent
wrote, stating that during six weeks he lost upwards of 300
young pheasants from no apparent cause, but that subsequently
he received a letter from his gamekeeper, who wrote : “ I have
found out the cause of the pheasants dying. The farmer kept
his sheep so long upon that piece of ground before I had the
use of it, that the sheep lost a lot of wool, and my young birds
have swallowed it. I have opened forty or fifty young birds,
and found the gizzards quite full of wool, and the passage
stopped up, so that food could not pass. I send you four
pieces of wool, which I have taken from the gizzards of four
different birds. I never had a better lot of young birds. They
hatched off strong and well, and now I have lost nearly all of
them.”

It is probable that the sheep might have been dressed
with some arsenical or other poisonous “‘ dip” or “ wash,”
which would remain on the wool and prove fatal to the young

birds. The arsenical solution known as “‘ weed-killer”’ is

Yew Poisoning. 163

sometimes fatal to pheasants in pleasure grounds; it kills
the worms and grubs that are near the surface of the paths;
and these are eaten by the pheasants with fatal effect.

With regard to injurious substances taken as food, it is
unquestionable that pheasants are sometimes destroyed by
eating yew, the seeds as well as the leaves having proved
fatal; but it is singular that the precise conditions under
which they are poisoned have not been ascertained. The
poisoning of animals from eating these leaves is so well known
that damages have been claimed and obtained, after an appeal
to the higher courts, by persons who have lost cattle, horses,
or sheep, in consequence of the branches of yew trees being
allowed to hang over fences, or the cutting of hedges being
thrown upon the ground. Working with the late Professor
Tuson, of the Veterinary College, Mr. Tegetmeier investigated,
several years ago, the poisoning of pheasants by yew leaves,
of which many instances are recorded. The action of the
poisonous leaves in producing inflammation of the intestines
was so well marked that there could be no possible doubt
of the cause of death ; but the circumstances that led well-fed
pheasants to eat yew leaves on some occasions, and not to
touch them on others, are difficult of explanation. Most
poisoned birds which have been examined have been highly
nourished, extremely fat, and in good condition, and, so far
from being hungry, their crops in many instances have been
filled with maize.

Iieut. F. Stuart Wortley, then working at the Agricultural
College, Downton, wrote a letter to the Times of August 19,
1892, in which he described a number of experiments performed
with a view of ascertaining the amount of the poisonous
principle known as taxine in the leaves of the male and female
yew respectively. His experiments went to prove that taxine
exists im a much larger quantity in the leaves of the male than
in those of the female yew. If this taxine is the active principle,
his experiments indicate that only the male yew is poisonous,
but no tests which can be regarded as conclusive have yet

M 2

164. Diseases of Pheasants.

been made. It would be very desirable that some observer
who has the opportunity should ascertain by actual experi-
ments whether there is any difference in the action of the leaves
of the male and those of the female yew when given to pheasants
or other animals. This could be readily accomplished by mixing
the leaves of the two trees with ground meal, and administering
it to pheasants in captivity. The information thus obtained
would be very valuable, inasmuch as if it were found that the
leaves of the female yew were not poisonous, it would lead to
their being safely planted in coverts and places accessible to
animals. A great deal of the doubt and uncertainty which
prevails respecting the poisoning of animals by yew may
possibly depend upon the relative amount of poison contained
in the leaves of the two sexes of this plant. It is well known
that children often gather and eat the viscid covering of the
berries of the yew without injury ; consequently in that part
of the plant there can be no amount of this bitter principle
known as taxine. Cases, however, in which the seeds also
were swallowed by the children and death resulted are recorded
in the Lancet. The whole matter requires more careful investi-
gation, and offers a very interesting subject of experiment
to any person with the opportunity at his disposal.

The leaves of the yew were used at one time in the form
of an infusion known as “ yew-tea,’’ as an emmenagogue, in
many country places ; but when the decoction took a stronger
form the symptoms produced were giddiness, irregular action
of the heart, convulsions, and insensibility, preceded by
symptoms of gastric irritation, such as vomiting and diarrhea,
showing that the yew poison is one of those known as a nar-
cotico-acrid poison (Medicinal Plants, Bentley and Trimen).

It is thought by some that a_ possible cause of
death is the swallowing of shot picked up in covert.
Mr. J. Hindle Calvert, F.C.S., made the following com-
munication to the Field of February 19, 1876: “ The
following cases of lead-poisoning in pheasants may be of
interest to those who have large pheasant preserves. A

Lead Poisoning ? 165

gamekeeper brought me for inspection a hen pheasant
which was partially paralysed in the legs, and low im condition.
On killing the same and opening the gizzard I found thirteen
leaden pellets of various sizes; the grinding action of the
gizzard had disseminated the lead with the food, and the bird
was surely but safely undergoing the slow process of lead-
poisoning. This was very evident on applying the usual
chemical tests, as I readily detected lead dissolved in the food,
and also traces in the blood taken from the region of the heart.
Two days after this the gamekeeper brought another live bird.
This one had been in a sickly condition for two or three weeks,
and was quite emaciated. The legs were paralysed, and the
feet drawn in a similar manner to the drop-hand when lead
has been the cause of poisoning in the human subject. On
opening the gizzard I found four pellets, so that there is little
doubt that this bird would soon have died from the effects of
lead poisoning.

“T understand last year some score of pheasants died
in the same preserve, all of them showing symptoms same
as above related. Both years the poisoning happened after
the coverts had been shot through. No doubt the birds pick up
the pellets under the delusion of being either food or grains
of sand ; perhaps the latter. When the birds died last year
the cause of death was attributed to there being too many left
for breeding purposes ; rather a strange reason, seeing that the
birds had been decimated on the shooting day.

“Others may have experienced something similar to the
above, without being able to give a satisfactory reason for
the birds dying; but where you have paralysed limbs and
a gradual falling off in condition, and should this happen
some weeks after the covert has been shot through, then you’
may suspect that lead-poisoning is a probable cause.”

But later investigation throws a different light on Mr. Hindle
Calvert’s story. Ihave not been able to accept his conclusions.
IT have never myself come across a case of lead poisoning by
shot. That may be due to the fact that now all shot is hardened

166 Diseases of Pheasants.

by some process; in old days soft shot was used. The late
Sir J. Brigg often discussed this with me; he said he once
poured the greater part of a charge of shot down a hen’s throat
and it did: her no harm. And I have frequently found pellets
of shot in the gizzards of game birds, pheasants, partridges,
grouse, ptarmigan, and even in one wild goose, all of which
were apparantly perfectly healthy.

One of the essentials to health in pheasants is an adequate
supply of suitable grit; and it should be remembered that
this is necessary at the earliest stages of their existence. If
deprived of this a bird will soon deteriorate in condition
owing to the gizzard being unable to perform its function.
The aviaries should be well furnished with this material,
preferably in the form of white quartz or granite finely broken.
In coverts where the natural supply is exhausted or not

abundant a quantity of this grit may with advantage be
distributed.

‘(snavyojoo snumsvud) LNVSVAHd NOWNWOO

CHAPTER X.

The Common Pheasant

(Phasianus colchicus).

HE pheasants which are best adapted to the coverts

in England, the United States of America, Australia, and

other temperate climates are undoubtedly those which
belong to the restricted genus Phasianus, or, as many term them,
the true pheasants. J[ormerly there was but one distinct species
or race known in Europe, that which is named the P. colchicus,
from its having being received from the banks of the River
Colchis in Asia Minor. This was followed by the ring-necked
P. torquatus from China, the P. versicolor from Japan, and
the Mongolian pheasant, P. mongolicus. Of late years,
particularly in the decade of extensive rearing which preceded
the European War, the Mongolian pheasant has been freely
crossed with our common pheasant and with the Chinese,
and has quite supplanted the versicolor, which for various
reasons discussed in another chapter has fallen a little into
disfavour. These four pheasants were originally regarded
by naturalists as perfectly distinct species, but it is now known
that they breed freely with one another, and that the offspring
are perfectly fertile, however intimately they are interbred.
The late Henry Seebohm, who paid great attention to the birds
of this group, writing in the [bis for 1887, said :

“ The fact that all true pheasants interbreed freely with
each other and produce fertile offspring, may be accepted as
absolute proof that they are only sub-specifically distinct
from each other. Like all other sub-species, they only exist
upon sufferance. ‘The local races appear to be distinct enough,
but they only retain their distinctive character as long as they

168 The Common Pheasant.

are isolated from each other. The moment they are brought
into contact they begin to interbreed ; crosses of every kind
rapidly appear, and in a comparatively short time the swamp-
ing effects of interbreeding reduce the two or more local
races which have been brought into contact to a single and
uniform intermediate race. Such swamping effects of inter-
breeding have practically stamped out in the British Islands
the two very different looking races of pheasants which were
introduced into them—Phasianus colchicus from Asia Minor,
and Phasianus torquatus from China. The pheasant of the
British Islands is, with very rare exceptions, only a mongrel
between these two races, but, it must be admitted, a very
healthy and fertile one.”’

The intermingling of the several races in the course of ages,
and the isolation of the different breeds in the valleys and
river systems of Asia, have given rise to numerous sub-species
which are found spread over that vast continent. ‘The spread
of scientific investigation is continually disclosing new pheasants
which it pleases the discoverers to regard as distinct species,
but which are obviously only mixed races. Mr. D. G. Klhot,
writing in 1872, enumerated about a dozen. Mr. Seebohm,
in the Ibis for 1887, described six as sub-species of P. colchicus
(three of which were not recognised by Mr. Elhot). These are
P. principalis from North Afghanistan ; P. persicus (which Mr.
Klhot regards as the same as P. shawi); and P. chrysomelas,
which he regards as identical with P. insignis. In the following
volume (1888) Mr. Seebohm enumerates seven races, of which
the Chinese P. torquatus may be regarded as the type ; of these,
two, P. vlangali and P. strauchi, are not described by Mr. Elliot.
Of the others, the most strongly marked is the Japanese
P. versicolor, which appears to me to be the most distinct
and typical of all the true pheasants.

In his work on Game Birds, Mr. Ogilvie Grant enumerates
eighteen species, and to these have been added three others
by Mr. Dresser and the Hon. Walter Rothschild, as recorded
in Chapter I. of the present volume.

Results of Crossing. 169

It would be but a tedious and unprofitable waste of time
to enter into the consideration of these numerous breeds of
pheasants ; suffice to say they are all perfectly fertile, inter se,
as are their progeny to any extent. The naming a variety as a
new species because it has a slight variation in its plumage
has little interest for practical men. In the following pages,
therefore, the more typical breeds will be described, and their
numerous varieties treated as allies.

In commencing the description of the different pheasants
adapted to the covert, the common species (Phasianus colchicus)
claims the first place, as it is more generally distributed and
better known than any of the more recent introductions.
Although not equalling some of them in size or gorgeousness
of plumage, it is by many sportsmen preferred in consequence
of its rapid flight and active habits. It is, however, only in
the remote districts of the country that it is now to be found
in a state of purity, as the introduction of the Chinese and
Japanese races has given rise to so many cross-bred varieties
that in many districts a pure-bred P. colchicus is a rarity.

Lord Lilford, in “‘ The Birds of Northamptonshire,” writing
of the common pheasant, says: “‘ Although it is now difficult
to find pure-bred specimens of this species, on account of
the frequent crossings with the Chinese Ring-necked Pheasant
(P. torquatus) and other species, we do occasionally meet with
birds, especially in the large woodlands of the northern division
of Northamptonshire, which, by their small size, the absence
of any trace of the white collar, which is so conspicuous in the
Chinese bird, and the intense blackness of the plumage of
the lower belly, present the characteristics of the true unadul-
terated species.” .

In the district of the Humber we were informed by the
late Mr. John Cordeaux that “the pure old breed untainted
by any cross is now seldom to be met with, excepting in a few
localities furthest removed from the great centres of game
preserving. With these few exceptions, our resident birds
are a mixed race, exhibiting in a greater or less degree the

170 The Common Pheasant.

cross between the old English bird and the Ring-neck
(P. torquatus).”’ This statement is equally true of all the well-
preserved districts of England, in many of which the varieties
are still more complex in consequence of the imtroduction
of the Japanese species (P. versicolor), and more recently
of the Mongolian (P. mongolicus). Traces of the cross between
the Japanese pheasant and our ordinary bird can still be seen
occasionally among the cocks killed in a day’s shooting. These
birds can always be distinguished by the beautiful peacock-
green markings of the tail coverts, which are quite different
from the burnished copper-reds in the tail coverts of the
Mongolian pheasants and those of the black neck, though the
Chinese birds show something similar in colourmg which is
not, however, so brilliant.

In these circumstances, I have thought it desirable to quote
the description of the common pheasant from the first volume
of Maegillivray’s ‘‘ British Birds,” 1837, masmuch as that
author’s descriptions are unrivalled for their accuracy and
attention to detail, and at the date at which it was published
the common species had not in Scotland been crossed with any
of the more recent importations.

Macgillivray thus describes the sexes of P. colchicus :—

‘*Male.—The legs are stronger; the tarsi, which are stout
and a little compressed, have about seventeen plates in each
of their anterior series. The first toe, which is very small,
has five, the second twelve, the third twenty-two, the fourth
nineteen scutella. The spur on the back of the tarsus is
conical, blunt, and about a quarter of an inch long.

“The feathers of the upper part of the head are oblong
and blended, of the rest of the head and the upper part of
the neck imbricated and rounded, of the fore-neck and breast
broad, shghtly emarginate or abruptly rounded ; of the back
broad and rounded, of the rump elongated, with loose filaments ;
of the sides very long, of the abdomen downy, of the legs soft
and rather short. Directly over the aperture of the ear is a
small erectile tuft of feathers. The wings are short, very

Plumage. kik

broad, curved, rounded, of twenty-four quills ; the primaries
attenuated from near the base, rounded, the third and fourth
longest, the first equal to the seventh ; the secondaries broad,
rounded, and little shorter than the primaries. The tail is
very long, slightly arched, remarkably cuneate or tapering,
of eighteen tapering feathers, of which the lateral are incurred,
the central straight. Four pairs of the longest tail feathers
are concave above towards the end, or channelled.

“The bill is pale greenish-yellow, the nasal membrane
hight brown or flesh-coloured. The bare papillar patch on
the side of the head is scarlet, in parts approaching to arterial
blood-red, or at some seasons crimson. The eyelids are
flesh-coloured, the iris yellow. The feet are light grey tinged
with brown, the claws light chocolate brown.

“The feathers of the upper part of the head are deep
brownish-green, with yellowish marginal filaments. The upper
part of the neck is deep green behind, laterally and anteriorly
greenish-blue and purplish-blue. The lower part of the neck
is reddish-orange, anteriorly tinged with purple; the breast
and sides brownish yellow ; each feather terminally margined
with purplish-blue, the dark margin indented in the middle,
but the indentation gradually diminishing on the breast. The
middle of the lower part of the breast is blackish-brown,
glossed with green, the margins of the feathers being of the
latter colour. The fore part of the back is yellowish-red,
each feather shghtly margined with black, and having a
central oblong spot of the same. The scapulars are redder,
with a shght black tip, the central part dull yellow mottled
with dusky, margined with a black band. On the middle of
the back the feathers are somewhat similarly variegated,
with additional spots of light blue and purple. Those on the
rump are of a deep red, with green and greyish tints. The
inner wing-coverts are similar to the scapulars, but edged
externally with dark red, the outer yellowish-grey, variegated
with whitish and dusky. The quills are light brownish-grey,
variegated with pale greyish-yellow ;. the secondaries more

yi The Common Pheasant.

tinged with brown on the outer edges. The tail is dull greenish-
yellow, variegated with yellowish-grey, the feathers with
narrow transverse bars of black, a broad longitudinal band
of dull red on each side, the loose margins red, glossed with
ereen and purple. On the abdomen and legs the feathers are
dull greyish-brown ; under the tail variegated with reddish.
The lower surface of the wing is yellowish-grey.

‘Length to end of tail, 34 inches; extent of wings, 32;
wing from flexure, 10 ; tail, 184 ; bill along the back, 1,4; ; along
the edge of upper mandible, 1,5, ; tarsus, 3,°, ; first toe, ;;, its
claw, ;°,; second toe, 1,,, its claw, ;4; third toe, 2,4, its claw, .
;*; ; fourth toe, 1,4, its claw, 43 twelfths.

“ Of three other individuals, the length 34, 35, 36 inches.

‘* Female.—The female is similar in form to the male, but
with the tail much shorter. The bill and feet require no
particular description. The anterior scutella of the tarsus are
about seventeen in each row ; the first toe has five, the second
fifteen, the third twenty-two, the fourth eighteen. As in the
male, there is a bare space under the eye, but scarcely papillar,
and more feathered. The feathers of the upper part of the
upper part of the head are somewhat elongated ; those of the
rest of the head short; of the neck and body oblong and
rounded ; of the rump not elongated as in the male.

“The general colour of the upper parts is greyish-vellow
variegated with black and yellowish-brown ; the top of the
head and the hind-neck tinged with red. The wing-coverts
are lighter; the quills pale greyish-brown, mottled with
greyish-yellow, as in the male. The tail is yellowish-grey,
minutely mottled with black, and having, in place of transverse
bars, oblique irregular spots of black, centred with a pale
yellow line. The lower parts are lighter and less mottled,
the throat whitish and without spots. The billis horn-coloured,
tinged with green ; the tarsi wood-brown, the toes darker, the
claws of the same tint.

‘Length, 26 inches ; extent of wings, 30; wing from flexure,
91; tail, 114; bill along the back, 14; tarsus, 23; first toe, 4,

Varieties. 173

its claw, ;4;; second toe, 1,?;, its claw, ;°;; third toe, 1%, its
claw, ;'; ; fourth toe, 1,4, its claw, 35.”

Several well-marked and perfectly permanent varieties of
this species are not uncommon. One of the best known is
the so-called Bohemian pheasant, in which the entire plumage
is much less glossy, the general ground-colour being of a
creamy tint; the head, neck, and spanglings on the breast
and tail showing the dark markings in varying degrees of
intensity in different specimens. ‘The Bohemian pheasant
is occasionally produced from the common form in different
localities; the variation is hereditary, and may _ be
propagated by careful selection of brood stock. Thus
Stevenson, in his “ Birds of Norfolk ”’ (vol. i., p. 868), informs
us that in that county, like certain light varieties of the common
partridge, they are confined to particular localities :—‘‘ They
have been found in different seasons in some coverts at
Cranmer ; and in the autumn of 1861 I saw three fine examples
killed, I believe, in Mr. Hardeastle’s preserves at Hanworth,
near Cromer, one of which, even in its abnormal plumage,
showed a decided relationship to the Ring-necked cross by
the white mark on either side of the neck ’’—a circumstance
also noticed by Maegillivray.

Purely white varieties of the common pheasant occur
annually in various coverts without any apparent cause. A
correspondent, who has been a pheasant rearer for thirty years,
writes : “* Four years ago a nest of thirteen eggs was brought
in by the mowers. All the eggs were hatched ; eleven were
perfectly white birds, the other two the common colour.
Nine of the white birds were reared—six cocks and three hens ;
three cocks were turned out, the others were kept in the
pheasantry, pinioned. The white pheasants proved very
bad layers—very delicate, their eggs very bad ; and those that
were hatched very difficult to rear, and there never was a
white bird bred. The extraordinary thing is, that where
the nest was taken up the keepers had never before or since
seen a white pheasant. The three cocks turned out never

174 The Common Pheasant.

(to my knowledge or the keeper's) were the cause of white
pheasants or pied pheasants being bred, and the three all
disappeared in the second year. On another part of my estate
a white cock pheasant was bred ; he was considered a sacred
bird, and lived seven years, when he disappeared. In the
covert he resorted to I killed one pied pheasant, and I believe
that one bird was the only pied pheasant (if bred through him)
that ever was seen.”

Left to themselves, the white cocks are doubtless driven
away from the hens by the stronger and more vigorous dark
birds, and rarely increase their kind. When mated in
pheasantries the natural colour has a strong tendency to
reproduce itself; but white, or even pied or parti-coloured
birds, are not always to be produced from white parents, as
the following letters will show :—** On the manor of a friend in
Yorkshire are a cock and hen pheasant entirely and purely
white. They inhabit different woods, and are strenuously
protected by the head keeper, who considers their presence
a proof of the integrity of his coverts, and invariably requests
strangers to spare them. There are also a few ring-necks
in the coverts, which have bred so freely with the common
sort that hardly a cock pheasant is killed but shows some
marks of white about his neck, while pied birds are so rare that
the few that have been shot have been preserved. If, then,
white pheasants breeding with ring-necks and other birds
produced, as a rule, pied birds, why should there not have been
every year at least one brood of pied pheasants in these woods
in the same proportion as the half-bred ring-necks ?”’ Another
correspondent writes :—‘‘ A white hen was confined in the
pheasantry here for some years with a common pheasant, but
of the progeny there was not one pied bird. <A pied cock was
then confined with a common hen pheasant, and there were
a few of the chicks pied. Lastly, a pied cock and a pied hen
were confined together, and invariably every one of the chicks
was pied. I have tried the experiment frequently with the
same results.” And a third states :—‘ I deny that the cross

White and Pied. L759

between the white and common pheasant will produce pied
when both are pure bred. I have tried the cross in confinement
for years, and never produced one pied bird from it ; and before
the pied breed was introduced into the preserves here we had
an abundance of white cocks and white hens; and, believing
at that time that the pied was the result of a cross between
the white and common pheasant, I used to watch the nides of
every white hen, and was surprised that in no instance was
there one pied chick, though some were white.”

The explanation of the difficulty of breeding pied birds from
a white and a coloured parent, and the ease with which ring-
necks are produced and perpetuated, is soon given. Ring-
necks are derived more or less directly from the P. torquatus,
a permanent race that has a strong tendency to reproduce
its like; but white and pied birds are merely accidental
variations, and therefore are not prepotent in propagating their
like, but have a strong tendency to throw back to the stock
from which they were derived. The whiteness of the plumage,
indeed, is merely the result of some anemic condition, which
makes for a deficiency in colouring matter in the blood supply
of the feathers. Many pheasant breeders have tried, by
mating white or pied birds, to produce a permanent strain of
white pheasants, but up to now none of them seem to have
been successful. The late Earl of Stamford and Warrington
tried to breed white pheasants at Enville, but was not
successful.

CHAPTER XI.

The Chinese Pheasant

(Phasianus torquatus).

David, Prjevalski, and other naturalists who have

investigated the fauna of the Chinese Empire unite in
confirming the belief that this pheasant (P. torquatus) is the
most common species in China, abounding in vast numbers
in the hill coverts and cotton fields. Mr. Saurin states: “ The
common Chinese pheasant is found everywhere in the north of
China. Jam not aware how much further south they are found
than Shanghai ; but in that neighbourhood, since the devasta-
tion of the country by the Tai-pings, they are shot by hundreds.
Thousands are brought down to the Pekin market in a frozen
state by the Mongols, from as far north as the Amour. At the
new Russian port of Poussiet, conterminous with the Corea,
the same pheasant abounds. I myself have seen them wild
in the Imperial hunting grounds north of Jehol, and in the
mountains near Ku-peh-kow.”

Consul Swinhoe says that it is very common near Hankow,
and at all the places that have been visited by Europeans
north of the Yangtze. Formosa swarms with these birds ;
the specimens found there, however, differ from those of the
typical race by having the ochreous feathers on the flanks
exceedingly pale, and by some writers this local variety has
been described as a distinct species under the name of
P. formosanus.

The characters of the pure-bred Chinese P. torquatus were
given in minute detail by the late Mr. Gould in his magnificent
folio, ** The Birds of Asia.” They are as follows :—-“* The male

(Oose SWINHOE, Mr. Dudley E. Saurin, Pére
A

‘(sngonbwo, snupispyg) INVSVAHd ASANTHO

Plumage. ET.

has the forehead deep green ; crown of the head fawn colour
glossed with green; over each eye a conspicuous streak of
buffy white ; the naked papillated skin of the orbits and sides
of the face deep scarlet or blood-red, interspersed beneath the
eye with a series of very minute black feathers; horn-like
tufts on each side of the head ; throat and neck rich, deep,
shining green with violet reflections; near the base of the
neck a conspicuous collar of shining white feathers, narrow
before and behind, and broadly dilated at the sides ; the feathers
of the back of the neck black, with a narrow mark of white
down the centre of the back portion, and a large lengthened
mark of ochreous yellow within the edge of each web near the
tip ; the feathers of back and scapularies black at the base,
with a streak of white in the middle, then buff surrounded with
a distinct narrow band of black, to which succeeds an outer
fringe of chesnut ; feathers of the back black, with numerous
zigzag and crescentic marks of buffy white ; lower part of the
back, rump, and upper tail coverts light green of various shades,
passing into bluish-grey at the sides, below which is a mark of
rufous ; breast feathers, indented at the tip, of a rich reddish
chesnut, with purple reflections, and each bordered with
black ; flanks, fine buff, with a large angular spot of beautiful
violet at the tip; centre of the abdomen black, with violet
reflections ; under tail coverts reddish chesnut ; wing coverts
silvery-grey ; wings brown, the primaries with light shafts,
and crossed with narrow bars of light buff; the secondaries
similar, but not so regularly marked as the primaries; tail
feathers olive, fringed with different shades of reddish violet,
and crossed at regular intervals with broad, conspicuous black
bands, passing into reddish-brown on the sides of the basal
portion of the six central feathers ; bill, yellowish-horn colour ;
irides, yellow ; feet, greyish-white. The female has the whole
of the upper surface brownish-black, with a margin of buff to
every feather ; the throat whitish, and the central portion of
the under-surface fawn colour; flanks mottled with brown ;
tail buff, barred with dark brown, between which are other
N

178 The Chinese Pheasant.

interrupted bars of the same hue. These marks are broader on
the two central feathers than on the others, and, moreover,
do not reveal the edge on either side.”’

The specific name torquatus is derived from torquis, a neck-
Jace or collar. This species was introduced into England a great
many years since, long before the time of Latham (1790),
who described it as having been turned out in preserves on
many estates ; and in 1742 Peter Collinson saw “ some beautiful
China pheasants ’’ in the possession of Captain Goff, an Hast
India Director (Richardson, Correspondence, 1835). No birds
could be better adapted for our coverts ; being natives of a cold
part of China, they are very hardy—a character which they
display by layimg early in the season, and by producing an
abundant supply of eggs. The pure Chinese is a bird of bold
flight, rising through the covert with great quickness, and then
pursuing a swift, straight course. It is unquestionably a most
ornamental addition to our game birds, being valuable not only
for the beauty of its plumage, but also for the delicacy of its
flesh. The breed is, however, kept in a state of absolute
purity with some difficulty, as the males are apt to wander ;
indeed, Mr. W. Liddiard, West Bridgford, Nottingham, who has
reared them in the United States, where they are commonly
known as Mongolians, reports that he had evidence of his
ring-necks being killed thirty and forty miles from where they
were bred. Hence crosses between it and the common species
are very prevalent ; these constitute what are usually called
the ring-necked pheasants. These cross-bred birds are
perfectly fertile, not only with either pure race, but also inter se
They are, however, variable in plumage, the amount of white
in the neck varying from four to five feathers to a nearly
complete circle, and the feathers on the flanks being inter-
mediate between the beautiful spotted buff of the pure Chinese
and the dark colour of the common bird. These ring-necks
are now common in most parts of the country where pheasants
are preserved. The good points of the Chinese are largely
shared by their half-bred progeny ; hence the cross between

Tue Tor Row or FraruHers are from the rump of a pure bred Chinese

hen; in the lower part of the feather a lance-headed marking is seen,

but the light and dark bands are irregular in some and in others more
like the transverse bars of the Mongolian.

THE Lower Row or FrarHeERs are from the rump of a pure Mongolian

hen; the feathers are more fluffy, and the cross bars of dark and licht

colour. ‘These are not irregular, but go straight across the feather,
while the black point at the tip is very small,

Crossed with P. Colchicus. 179

the common and the Chinese is a valuable introduction to our
preserves, retaining as it does to so great a degree the beauty
and early fertility of the pure Chinese race, to which it adds
great hardihood and larger size, but the birds are generally
regarded as more apt to stray, and some gourmets maintain
they are not quite so good a bird on the table as the pure-bred
P. colchicus.

The extent to which the interbreeding of the two species
has taken place is well shown in the following interesting
account taken from Stevenson’s “ Birds of Norfolk ”’ :—‘‘ In
its semi-domesticated state, like our pigeons and poultry,
the common pheasant crosses readily with its kindred species,
and to so great an extent has this been carried in Norfolk that,
except in the wholly unpreserved districts, it is difficult at the
present time to find a perfect specimen of the old English type
(P. colchicus) without some traces, however slight, of the ring-
neck, and other marked features of the Chinese pheasant
(P. torquatus), and in many localities of the Japanese
(P. versicolor). In looking over a large number of pheasants
from different coverts, as I have frequently done of late years
in our fish market, I have noticed every shade of difference
from the nearly pure-bred ring-neck, with its buff-coloured
flanks and rich tints of lavender and green on the wing
and tail-coverts, to the common pheasant in its brilliant
but less varied plumage, with but one feather in its
glossy neck just tipped with a speck of white. Some
birds of the first cross are scarcely distinguishable
from. the true P. torquatus, and are most gorgeous objects
when flushed in the sunlight on open ground; but as
the ‘strain’ gradually dies out, the green and lavender
tints on the back begin to fade, and the rich orange
flanks are toned down by degrees ; though still the most marked
feature of all, the white ring on the neck, descends from one
generation to another, and the hybrid origin of the bird is thus
apparent long after every other trace of its mixed parentage

has entirely passed away.”
N2

180 The Chinese Pheasant.

The Chinese pheasant has been introduced into several
parts of the globe with success. The rapidity of its merease
in New Zealand has already been noticed. As long ago as the
year 1513 it was acclimatised in the island of St. Helena in
very peculiar circumstances, as related by Brookes in his history
of the island. Fernandez Lopes, having deserted from the
army of A. Albuquerque at Goa, was exiled, along with a
number of negroes, and banished to St. Helena, being supplied
with roots, seeds, poultry, and pheasants for turning out.
These were of the species now under consideration. Berries
and seeds being abundant in the island, the birds became wild,
throve amazingly, and on the visit of Captain Cavendish in
1588 he found them in great abundance and admirable
condition. In 1875 we are informed, in Melliss’s ** St. Helena,”’
that they still exist abundantly, and quite maintain the
characteristics mentioned by Cavendish. They are protected
by game laws, which permit them to be killed, on payment
of the licences, for six weeks in the summer or autumn of each
year, and hundreds of them are generally killed during one
shooting season. ‘They find plenty of covert, and generally
make their nests in the long tufty fields of cow-grass
(Paspalum scrobiculatum).

There can be no doubt that the Chinese or ring-necked
species has remained in its purity at St. Helena. Ships going
to India vid the Cape of Good Hope in the olden time did not
sail within a thousand miles of St. Helena; but, taking
advantage of the trade winds, they went direct to the coast
of South America, often, indeed, calling at Rio, and then
struck straight away for the Cape of Good Hope, aided by the
return trade wind. It was on the return from India that the
Island of St. Helena was visited, and letters from England
to the island went vid the Cape. In these circumstances, the
introduction of a Colchian pheasant to the island is exceedingly
improbable, and that of a Japanese bird out of the question.

With regard to the alteration in plumage produced by
exposure to these new conditions for more than 400 years,

Local Varieties. 18]

it must be confessed that they are remarkably insignificant.
There is the same glossy, shining green of the head and neck,
the white ring completely surrounding the neck, the pale
greenish tail and wing coverts, but the breast and flanks are less
distinctly spangled, the under parts being of a more uniform
red.

The slight change in the plumage is doubtless owing to the
influence of a change of climate acting through many genera-
tions, added, perhaps, to a change of diet. We are informed
by Mr. J. English Torbett that the ripe seeds of the Calla
zethiopica, so common as a greenhouse plant in this country,
are much sought after by the pheasants in St. Helena, and that
it forms a large portion of their food.

Closely allied to the ordinary Chinese pheasant is a bird
which has been described as a distinct species by Consul
Swinhoe, under the title of the Ringless Chinese Pheasant
(P. decollatus). It was obtained by him at Chung-king-foo, in
Szechuen, and a somewhat similar bird was procured by Pere
David, at Moupin, near the Thibetan boundary. I cannot
regard these birds as anything more than mere local varieties
of the ordinary Chinese species, and must refer those who wish
to trace the slight distinctions between them to Mr. Elliot’s
‘* Phasianide,” in which they are figured. In the same
magnificent folio will be found engravings of the Yarkand
Pheasant (P. insignis) and’ Shaw’s Pheasant (P. shaw),
both closely allied to the common Chinese species, if not merely
to be regarded as geographical variations from it. Neither is
known im a living state in Europe, and consequently does not
require detailed notice in the present work.

CHAPTER XII.

The Japanese Pheasant

(Phasianus versicolor).

it has furnished Europe, has supplied us with the most

gorgeous of the true pheasants—P. versicolor. It is
doubtful, indeed, whether any of the gallinaceous group,
magnificent as many of them are, can surpass this bird in
resplendent brilliancy. The wonderful dark grass green of
the breast, that no painter can equal, the dark blue of the neck
and the brilliant scarlet of the face taken together constitute
one of the most effective combinations of colour to be found in
the whole class of birds. This splendid addition to the fauna of
Great Britain was quite unknown in a living state in Europe
sixty years since. It was described by Vieillot in his Galerie
des Oiseaux in 1825 and by Temminck in 1830. In 1840 a few
birds were brought to Amsterdam from Japan. Of these a
pair passed into the possession of the Earl of Derby. Of this
pair the female died, and the breed was established by cross-
ing the male with several females of the ordinary species, and
then pairing the half-bred progeny with the old male, and
continuing the breeding back until the offspring were no
longer capable of being distinguished from the original bird.

At the death of the Earl of Derby the Knowsley collection
came to the hammer. A number of the versicolor pheasants
including the original bird, were purchased by Prince Demidoff
for his preserves in Italy, and others passed into the possession
of Mr. J. H. Gurney, of Norwich. Since that period many
specimens have been imported.

ives among the numerous objects of interest with which

*(uopoaisuoa snumsnyg) LNVSVGHd ASANVdVE

Plumage. 183

As the bird crosses freely both with the common and the
Chinese species, it is desirable to give an accurate and detailed
description of its plumage. For this purpose I shall again
have recourse to Mr. Gould’s “ Birds of Asia,’’ and reproduce
his elaborate description of the two sexes :—

“The male has the forehead, crown, and occiput purplish
oil green ; ear tufts glossy green ; chin, throat, and sides and
back of the neck glossy changeable bluish-green ; back of the
neck, breast, and under surface deep shining grass green, with
shades of purple on the back of the neck and upper part of the
breast ; feathers of the back and scapularies chesnut, with
buffy shafts and two narrow lines of buff running round each,
about equi-distant from each other and the margin; lower
part of the back and upper tail coverts light glaucous grey ;
shoulders and wing coverts light greenish-grey, washed with
purple ; primaries brown on the internal web, toothed with dull
white at the base ; outer web greyer and irregularly banded with
dull white ; tertiaries brown, freckled with grey, and margined
first with greenish-grey and then with reddish chesnut ; centre of
abdomen and thighs blackish-brown; tail glaucous grey,
slightly fringed with purplish, and with a series of black marks
down the centre, opposite to each other at the base of the
feathers, where they assume a band-like form ; as they advance
towards the tip they gradually become more and more irregular,
until they are arranged alternately, and in the like manner
gradually increase in size ; on the lateral feathers these marks
are much smaller, and on the outer ones are entirely wanting,
those feathers being covered with freckles of brown ; orbits
crimson red, interspersed with minute tufts of black feathers ;
eyes, yellowish hazel; bill and feet horn colour.

“Compared with the female of the common pheasant, the
hen of the present bird has all the markings much stronger,
and is altogether of a darker colour. She has the whole of
the upper surface very dark or blackish brown, each feather
broadly edged with buff, passing in some of the feathers to a
chesnut hue ; those of the head, and particularly those of the

184. The Japanese Pheasant.

back, with a small oval deep spot of deep glossy green close
to the tip ; primaries and secondaries light brown, irregularly
barred with buff, and with buffy shafts ; tertiaries dark brown,
broadly edged with buff on their inner webs, and mottled with
dull pale chesnut on the outer web, the edge of which is buff ;
tail dark brown, mottled with buff, and black on the edges,
and crossed by narrow irregular bands of buff, bordered on
either side with blotches of dark brown ; on the lateral feathers
the lighter edges nearly disappear and the bands assume a
more irregular form; throat buff; all the remainder of the
under-surface buff, with a large, irregular, arrowhead-shaped
mark near the top of each feather ; thigh similar, but with the
dark mark nearly obsolete.”

The habits of the Japanese pheasant in its native country
were first described by Mr. Heine, the naturalist attached to
the American expedition to Japan, and the following obser-
vations by him were published in Commodore Perry’s “ Japan
Expedition,” 1856 :—‘‘ After the treaty of Yokohama had been
concluded the United States squadron proceeded to Simoda.
A friendly intercourse with the natives was established, and
I constantly availed myself of Commodore Perry’s kind
permission to make additions to our collection in natural
history. One morning, at dawn of day, I shouldered my gun
and landed in search of specimens of birds, and that day had
the good fortune to see, for the first time, the versicolor pheasant.
The province Idza, at the southern extremity of which the
port of Simoda is situated, forms a long neck of land extending
from the island of Niphon, in a southerly direction, and is
throughout mountainous, some of the mountains being from
4000 to 5000 feet high. The valleys are highly cultivated,
presenting in the spring a most luxurious landscape. The tops
of the mountains and hills are in some places composed of barren
rocks, and in others covered with grass and shrubs, producing
an abundance of small berries. Between those higher regions
and the fields below the slopes are covered with woods, having,
for the greater part, such thick undergrowth that it is scarcely

Tue Tor Row or Feraruers are from the rump of a cross-bred

Mongolian hen, a cross between a pure Mo golian and ordinary rine-

Ss ’ _a p : J Ss
necked pheasant, itself a cross-bred bird.

Tur Lower Row or Fraruers are from the rump of an ordinary
hen pheasant, cross between colchicus and torquatus. These show the
light and darker bands somewhat in the form of a lance. And it is to
be noticed that as the stronger and hardier bird, the Chinese, when
crossed with the colchicus, has left his marks on all his cross-bred
descendants, as shown by the ring round the neck, so this straight
cross-barring of the rump feathers of the hens continues to be seen in
the descendants of the cross between the Mongolian and the ordinary
pheasant.

~

In its Native Mountains. 185

possible to penetrate them. Following the beautiful valley,
at the outlet of which the town of Simoda stands, for about
four miles, I came to a place where the Simoda creek divides
into two branches. Selecting the eastern branch, I soon left
fields and houses behind me and, ascending through a little
gully, I emerged from the woods into the barren region. It
was yet early in the morning; clouds enveloped the peaks
and tops of the hills ; the fields and woods were silent, and the
distant sound of the surf from the seashore far below rather
increased than lessened the impression of deep solitude made
upon me by the strange scenery around.

“The walk and ascent had fatigued me somewhat; I had
laid down my gun and game-bag, and was just stooping to
drink from a little spring that trickled from a rock, when, not
ten yards from me, a large pheasant arose with loud rustling
noise, and before I had recovered my gun he had disappeared
over the brow of a hill. I felt somewhat ashamed for allowing
myself thus to be taken so completely aback ; but, noticing
the direction in which he had gone, I proceeded more carefully
in pursuit. A small stretch of tableland, which I soon reached,
was covered with short grass and some little clusters of shrubs,
with scattered fragments of rocks ; and as I heard a note which
I took to be the crowing of a cock pheasant at a short distance,
LT availed myself of the excellent cover, and, crawling cautiously
on my hands and knees, I succeeded in approaching him
within about fifteen yards. Having the advantage of the wind
and a foggy atmosphere, and being, moreover, concealed by
the rocks and shrubs, I could indulge in quietly observing
him and his family. Ona small sandy patch were an adult cock
and three hens busy in taking their breakfast, which consisted
of the berries already mentioned growing hereabouts in abund-
ance. [rom time to time the lord of this little family stopped
in his repast and crowed his shrill war-cry, which was answered
by a rival on another hill at some distance. At other moments,
again, when the sun broke forth for a short time, all stretched
themselves in the golden rays, and rolling in the sand, shook

186 The Japanese Pheasant.

the morning dew from their fine plumage. It was a beautiful
sight, and I looked upon it with exceeding pleasure ; so much,
indeed, that I could not find the heart to destroy this little
scene of domestic happiness by a leaden shower from my
fowling-piece. Suddenly the birds showed signs of uneasiness,
and I soon discovered the cause in a Japanese root-digger
coming from the opposite direction. I therefore took up my
gun, and, standing on my feet, raised the birds also, and as
they flew towards the next hill I had the good fortune to bring
down the cock with one barrel of my gun and one of the hens
with the other.

“The Japanese, who came up after I had loaded my gun
and secured my game, looked with some astonishment at the
stranger, for I was certainly the first foreigner who had been
in pursuit of game on the hunting-grounds of Niphon. He
evidently asked me several questions, which I was not, of
course, able to understand, but from his signs and the frequent
repetition of the word ‘‘statzoo”’ (two), I inferred that he
inquired whether I had fired twice in such quick succession
with one gun. I nodded, and explained to him as well as I
could the nature of my double-barrelled gun, and the use of
percussion caps, which seemed to astonish and delight him very
much. A pipe of tobacco which I offered was gladly accepted ;
and, in answer to a question that he appeared to understand,
he gave me the name of the pheasant as Ki-zhi. Later in the
day more people came to the hills, some for the purpose of
digging roots, others to look after their cattle, which appeared
to be turned out to graze on the hills. The birds had taken
to the bushes, where I could not follow them, and so obtained
no more specimens on that occasion.

‘A few days later, Lieutenants Bent and Nicholson and
myself made another shooting excursion to the hills, but
although we saw many pheasants, but a single specimen was
shot, and the birds appeared to be very shy. We observed
several Japanese with matchlocks about the hills, firmg away
at a great rate. As we did not see either of them with game,

Beautiful Monégrels. 187

and as the game-laws of Japan are very severe, so much so,
indeed, that their observance has been made a special article
of the treaty with the United States, I concluded that the
firing was only for the purpose of driving away the pheasants
to places where they would be more secure from the strangers.”’

The three species of pheasants—the PP. versicolor,
torquatus, and colchicus—readily interbreed, and the mixed
progeny, from whatever parentage, are perfectly fertile. The
effect of this introduction of foreign blood into English coverts
has been amazing, producing an increase of size and vigour,
and beautiful variations in the plumage, dependent on the
species whose blood predominates in the cross.

Nothing can be more interesting than the production of
these beautiful mongrels, which increase so rapidly that Gould
stated his opinion that in twenty years’ time it would be
difficult to find a true species in this country. This, however,
he regarded as of little moment, as fresh birds can always be
obtained from their native countries, Asia Minor, China, and
Japan. All naturalists, however, are not of Mr. Gould’s
opinion. The late Mr. Blyth informed me that P. versicolor
and P. torquatus kept themselves distinct in two neighbouring
copses at Lord Craven’s, not intermixing, although at a
comparatively short distance from each other, and that he
believed, although these races will cross when in confinement,
that in the open country the birds of each would select their
proper mates and produce pure bred offspring, an opinion
which I regard as exceedingly doubtful.

The cross between the Japanese and common pheasant is
a bird of briliant plumage, of greater size than the average
of English birds, and, as regards the table, very tender and
well flavoured. In Norfolk, this very beautiful cross was
introduced by Mr. J. H. Gurney, who bred most successfully,
both at Easton and Northrepps, from the birds he obtained
at the Knowsley sale and the common pheasant (though
chiefly with the ring-necked cross), and produced magnificent
specimens ; and from the eggs being greatly sought after by

188 The Japanese Pheasant.

other game preservers in his district, the race soon spread
throughout the county. “‘ From personal observation and
inquiry, however,’ writes Mr. Stevenson, “ during the last
two or three years, it appears, evidences of this cross, even in
the coverts where these hybrids were most plentiful, are now
scarcely perceptible ; the strong characteristics of the Chinese
bird apparently absorbing all the less marked though darker
tints of the Japanese. One of these birds, killed in 1853,
weighed upwards of four and a half pounds, and many
examples, which were stuffed for the beauty of their plumage,
will be found in the collections of our country gentlemen.”

In one respect the Japanese cross has been found not wholly
satisfactory. It is difficult to manage in covert and is an
irregular flier. The cross between the Mongolian and the
Chinese birds, on the other hand, produces as large a bird and
a bolder flier, and in consequence has been much more widely
sought after.

The absorption of the Japanese in the more common race
is not surprising when the small interfusion of new blood is
taken into consideration, but with the fresh introduction of
new blood, and the care in the preservation of the cross-bred
birds, there can be no doubt a permanent breed would result,
bearing the same relation to the pure-bred Japanese that the
common ring-neck does to the pure-blooded Chinese species.

CHAPTER XIII.

The Mongolian Pheasant

(Phasianus mongolicus).

HE magnificent pheasant known as the Mongolian comes

from the valley of the Syr-Daryr, as far east as Lake

Saisan, and the valley of the Black Irtish. So little
is known of it in this country that Mr. Ogilvie Grant, in his
valuable monograph on “* Game Birds,” published in 1897, says
that he could find no notes of importance on the habits of this
truly splendid pheasant, which is characterised by a broad
white ring round the neck—interrupted in the front by a narrow
patch of colour—and by having the whole of the wing coverts
white, the mantle, chest, and breast bronzy orange red, the
throat purplish bronzy red, and the breast and flank feathers
tipped with very dark green. The species is of large size, the
males measuring between 361m. and 37in. Coming as the
Mongolian does from the cold parts of China, the desert of
Gobi, and Mongolia, it is exceedingly hardy, and suffers more
from extreme heat than from severe cold.

An unfortunate misunderstanding has arisen in the
United States respecting this bird. The State authorities in
Massachusetts and in Oregon have in the most extraordinary
manner confounded it with the Ring-neck, P. torquatus.
They have issued specific directions for its cultivation, stating
that it cannot be reared successfully in the same manner as
ordinary English pheasants, whereas it is apparently certain
that no true Mongolian pheasant has up to recent times ever
been introduced into the United States. Misled by the official
documents as to the rearing of this bird, I reproduced the
directions for its cultivation in the Field, which elicited from
the Hon. Walter Rothschild the following communication :—

190 The Mongolian Pheasant.

‘“T wish to point out that the bird called in America, France,
Holland, and many other countries Mongolian pheasant is
not that bird, but the ring-necked pheasant, or Chinese
pheasant (P. torquatus), and, so far as I have been able to
ascertain, the true P. mongolicus had never been introduced
alive before Mr. Carl Hagenbeck got them for me, and certainly
have not been introduced into America.”

It is difficult to imagine how this mistake could have arisen ;
the appearance of the two breeds is totally distinct. But
there is no doubt that the Hon. Walter Rothschild is perfectly
correct, for in an elaborate paper on pheasants in Country
Infe in America for September, 1903, engravings of the different
species are given, including a large one of the Chinese Ring-
neck, P. torquatus, and underneath this elaborate drawing is
put the following description :—

“The so-called ‘ Mongolian’ pheasant, properly the China
Ring-neck, or torquatus. The true Mongolian has never
reached this country alive. LHighteen torquatus pheasants
were turned loose in Oregon in 1884, and there are probably
more now in Oregon than in China. Fifty thousand were
killed in one day last year in Oregon. ‘This is the best species
for naturalising in American game preserves.”

There is no doubt whatever of the correctness of the state-
ment by the Hon. Walter Rothschild, and the error committed
by the American authorities is greatly to be regretted, as it
cannot fail to lead to confusion.

With regard to the true Mongolian, the Hon. Walter
Rothschild, writing in the field of June 20, 1903, says :—

“T have, however, had a number of the true Mongolian
pheasant (P. mongolicus) alive at Tring for two or three
years, and have had a number of young, both pure and
half-bred, hatched and reared in our coverts, and those
which were shot proved much superior in flavour and size
to ordinary pheasants. Cock birds hatched in June were as
full plumaged and weighed as much as two-year-old common
pheasants.”

A Valuable Cross. 191

Testimony to the value of the Mongolian cross was adduced
by a correspondent who, writing in the Field of January 16,
1909, says, “‘ On the estate where I have recently been shooting
for some years the Chinese pheasant (P. torquatus) has been
reared, and splendid shots they have given. But for the last
three years Mongolians have been introduced, and some of
them have been crossed with the Chinese ; the result is that the
birds this year have shown better sport than ever. They rise
freely to the beaters, and fly boldly, very fast and high ; in
fact, if flushed on rising ground they fly almost too high te
be reached. On one occasion when we were shooting, there
was a very high wind, and the birds were flushed on a hillside
over the guns placed in the valley ; no one who saw them fly
could possibly say that they were lazy on the wing and never
gave a good sporting shot ; in fact, if anything, they were too
active on the wing and took such long flights that many of
them went straight away out of that day’s beat.” The keeper
on this estate gave it as his opinion that the chicks were very
hardy and easier to rear than those of the common pheasant.

It is exceedingly satisfactory to know that the half-bred
P. mongolicus have proved successful in the coverts. At
Tring several hundreds were reared, and came to the gun in
1903. The male hybrids have very much the appearance of
the pure P. mongolicus. The wing coverts are not so clear in
the white : but in beauty, hardihood, and table qualities they
leave nothing to be desired. The hens, however, are difficult
to distinguish from those of the common species, but the
variation in the feather markings between the cross-bred
Mongolian and ordinary hen pheasants was the subject of two
interesting communications by Dr. H. Hammond Smith
which appeared in the Field of February 6 and March 6, 1909.
In the colchicus and in the cross between the colchicus and the
torquatus, the feathers of the rough coverts of the hens are
marked with alternate bars of pale buff and black, arranged in a
lanciform shape, with the narrow part pointing down the
feather. In the hen of the Mongolian pheasant, on the other

192 The Mongolian Pheasant.

hand, similar bars of black and pale buff appear alternately
but arranged in straight lines across the feather. This straight
marking with buff and black lines appears on the feathers of
the tail coverts of the female hybrids between either the
Chinese and Mongolian or the common pheasant and
Mongolian, and remains for generations. Just as the white
ring now generally seen on the necks of the cocks of the common
pheasant has remained as a mark of his descent from the
Chinese bird, so these cross bars on the tail coverts of hybrid
hens point to a Mongolian ancestry.

The directions published by the Massachusetts Game
Commission as to rearing the supposed Mongolian, but really
Chinese Ring-necked pheasant, successfully on the maggots
of the blue-bottle, or blow-fly, where ants’ eggs cannot be
obtained, are so important that although they were issued in
error as to the species of pheasant, I think they are well worth
reproduction, and therefore insert the following extract from
the report :—

“The arrangement for raising maggots is simple and easily
constructed. A small house 6ft. by 8ft. and 6ft. high was
framed and covered with matched boards. Four windows
were cut in it, but, instead of glass, they were covered on the
outside with din. mesh wire cloth, and solid shutters hinged
on the outside. A ventilator 8in. square and 12ft. high was
attached to the roof. By opening the door and windows the
house was sufficiently ventilated in a short time to do what
work was necessary inside. Across one side, near the top,
and about 10in. from the boarding, a joist was fastened, thickly
studded with small meat hooks ; 20in. below this were placed
hopper-shaped boxes, 18in. square at the top, 12in. at bottom,
and Tin. deep, the bottom covered with jin. mesh wire cloth.
Below these were arranged tight drawers 18in. square and 4in.
deep, around the tops of which were nailed strips of tin pro-
jecting inward about #in. to prevent the maggots crawling out.

‘““ After many experiments it was found that sheep plucks
were the cheapest and most available material for the purpose,

Insect Food. 193

thirty-six plucks a week producing enough food for about 200
young pheasants. Three times a week from six to twelve
plucks were spread in the morning on a hurdle covered with
lin. mesh wire cloth, and set out of doors, and by night were
fully blown, when they were taken into the house and hung
on the hooks. Seven plucks will produce from four to seven
quarts of maggots. The hopper boxes were about half-filled
with a mixture of wheat bran and ground beef scraps (one
quart of scraps to six of bran), thoroughly mixed and moistened
with water. In about twenty-four hours (depending somewhat
upon the temperature) the maggots drop into the bran, where
they find additional food and then drop into the drawers below.
They are not in condition to use until the fourth or fifth day
after the meat is blown, but if not then placed in a cool place
will change to the chrysalid state, unfit for the chicks, in a
few hours. By placing them in a refrigerator as soon as fully
grown, where the temperature does not exceed 45°, further
development is arrested, and they may be kept for several
weeks.

“ All this may not seem very enticing work, but it is a
necessity, as this or some equivalent must be used for food to
insure success in raising Mongolian pheasants. The chicks
are so small and tender for the first two or three weeks that all
efforts to raise them on the food recommended for the English
pheasants end more or less in disappointment. When fed on
maggots the loss from disease was slight, but a considerable
number were lost by accidents. When the young pheasants
were but three or four weeks old they flew over the fence
and into the adjacent woods. The treatment of the young
Mongolian was quite different from the directions given for
raising English pheasants. After the first week the board was
taken away from the little yard, and the birds were allowed
to go at pleasure into the large inclosure, shutting them
up at night and letting them out in the morning, often by
five o'clock, making no effort to keep them out of the wet

crass or rain. They sometimes became quite wet, but did
Oo

194. The Mongolian Pheasant.

not seem any the worse for it. They will stand any weather
if properly fed. Coming from the rough climate of China and
Southern Siberia, they suffer more from the heat in July and
August than from the most severe winter weather.”

These directions will afford considerable assistance to many
pheasant rearers in districts where ants’ eggs are not abundant,
and there is not the slightest doubt that the information given
in the valuable account extracted from the Massachusetts
Commission will be of great interest to all pheasant rearers.
It is essential, however, that maggots should not be fed to the
young birds fresh from the decomposed flesh on which they
have been feeding, but should be placed in loose dry earth
or other material in which they clean themselves of impurities.
Otherwise they will sometimes cause scouring in the chicks,
to which, in any case, they should be given somewhat

sparingly.

ACO.
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CHAPTER XIV.

Reeves’s Pheasant

(Phasianus reevesit).

to Venice in 1298, after a residence of seventeen vears in

Tartary. was evidently acquainted with the magnificent
species now known as Reeves’s Pheasant. In the language of
his original translator, whose quaint orthography I have
followed, he is made to state: “‘ There be plenty of Feysants
and very greate, for 1 of them is as big as 2 of ours, with tayles
of eight, 9 and tenne spannes long, from the Kingdom of
Erguyl or Arguill, the W. side of Tartary.” This description
can be applicable only to the species now under consideration.
From this time, until described by Latham and Temminck,
this bird was comparatively unknown, except from the
inspection of Chinese drawings. Sonnini, who preceded
Temminck, concludes his account by stating that it is very
possible that the bird, of which he had merely seen pictures,
** exists only in the imagination of the Chinese painters.”

Singularly enough, the species was, for thirteen years—
namely, 1808 to 1821—living in the aviary of Mr. Beale, at
Macao. Dr. Bennett, in his “* Wanderings in New South
Wales,” states: “In Mr. Beale’s splendid aviary and garden
at Macao the beautiful P. veneratus of Temminck, the
P. reeves of Gray, now commonly known by the name of
the Reeves’s Pheasant, was seen. It is the Chee-kai of the
Chinese.

“ The longest tail feathers of the bird are 6ft.in length, and
are placed in the caps of the players when acting military
characters. This I observed at Canton, where some of the

02

Move POLO, the old Venetian traveller, who returned

196 Reeves’s Pheasant.

beautiful tail feathers (rather in a dirty condition, like the actors
themselves, who, in their tawdry dresses, reminded me of the
chimney-sweepers in London on a May-day) were placed erect
on each side of their caps as a decoration.

“The Chinese do not venerate this bird, as was first supposed,
and which may have caused Temminck to bestow upon it the
name of veneratus ; but it is superstitiously believed that the
blood of the bird possesses poisonous properties, and that the
Mandarins, when in expectation of losing their rank and
being suddenly put to death by order of the Emperor, preserve
some of it on a handkerchief in a dried state, on sucking which
they fall down and instantly expire.

“Mr. Beale’s first male specimen, obtained in 1808, was kept
in a healthy state for thirteen years; after its death he
endeavoured to procure others, but did not succeed until
1831, when four specimens were brought from the interior
of China, and purchased by him for 130 dollars ; these were,
I believe, taken to England subsequently by Mr. Reeves.”

The first living bird of this species was imported into Europe
about the year 1831 by Mr. Reeves (of the firm of Dent and
Co.). This specimen was a male. The son of this gentleman,
Mr. John R. Reeves, brought a female over in 1838, and the
pair were in the Zoological Gardens at the same time ; but the
male being old, they did not breed. Some cross-bred birds
were reared from the hen, which died in 1840.

Dr. Latham, in his ‘‘ General History of Birds,” gave a
description of this species from a drawing and tail feathers in
the possession of Sir J. Anstruther. He states :—‘‘ I had an
opportunity of seeing a bundle of thirty or forty of these tail
feathers, which were brought from China, and I found amongst
them specimens of every length from 18in. to 7ft.”’ The species
was named by Latham P. superbus. ‘Temminck described it
under the title of Faisan superbe in his ‘‘ Pigeons et Gallinacés,”’
published in 1813. At this date it was known to him only
by the two central tail feathers, and the drawings of native
Chinese artists. Subsequently, however, he obtained a skin

A Successful Introduction. 197

of the male, which he figured in his “ Planches colorées,”” giving
it the erroneous name of P. veneratus. This plate was copied
on a reduced scale in Jardine’s “ Naturalist’s Library,”
published in 1834. Dr. J. E. Gray, in his “ Indian Zoology,”’
named the bird after the gentleman by whom it was introduced
into England, and by this name it is now generally known.

The successful introduction of the living birds now in
England is owing to the combined efforts of the late Mr. John J.
Stone and Mr. Walter H. Medhurst, H.M. Consul at Hankow.
Owing to their exertions, this splendid pheasant is now firmly
established in this country, and, like the P. versicolor
and P. torquatus, is to be seen at large in our woods, and
specimens are occasionally to be bought in the wholesale
markets.

For several years Mr. Stone made continuous efforts to
obtain this and other new pheasants from Northern China,
but with no satisfactory results until the aid of Mr. Medhurst
was obtained. It is mainly due to that gentleman’s thorough
knowledge of the natives of China, and of their language,
that the true habitat of this bird was ascertained, and an
experienced Chinaman sent into the interior for the purpose
of collecting this and other rare pheasants, of which coloured
drawings had been supplied for his guidance.

The first three lots of birds obtained all died before reaching
England, with the exception of one male, which lived for about
three months. The fourth lot was obtained in the direction of
Syechney, about thirty days’ journey from Hankow, and from
it seven Reeves’s pheasants were deposited in the Zoological
Garden, Regent’s Park. Mr. Medhurst was anxious that Her
. Majesty Queen Victoria should have early possession of
specimens of P. reevesti ; and, in compliance with his wish,
one male and two females were offered to and graciously
accepted by Her Majesty. Since the successful reintroduction
of these birds they have bred freely both in confinement and at
large in England and on the Continent, and are now to be
purchased at the dealers’.

198 Reeves’s Pheasant.

With regard to the distribution of this bird in China, Mr.
Saurin remarks :—‘* The Reeves’s pheasant, called by the
Chinese Chi-Chi, 18 very rarely seen in the Pekin market.
For a long time I failed to discover from what quarter they
came. . . . Last winter I ascertained, however, that they
came from the Tung-lin; and I have reason to suppose that
they are to be found nowhere else in the province of Chi-l.
About twenty birds were brought down alive last winter.
They are never brought in frozen or by Mongols. Their flesh
is very delicious, and superior, to my taste, to that of any
other pheasant.”

The plumage of the Reeves’s pheasant is verv strikmg. The
head is covered by a cowl of white, surrounded by a band of
black, with a spot of white under the eve ; the neck has a broad
ring of white, margined below with a black collar ; the feathers
of the back and upper part of the breast are of a brilliant
golden yellow, margined with black ; those of the lower part
of the breast are white, each one presenting bands of black
more or less irregular in their arrangement ; the under parts
of the body are deep black ; the tail is formed of eighteen
feathers, which are closely folded together, so that the entire
tail appears narrow ; at the broadest part the feathers are
about 2im. in width ; the ground colour of each tail feather is
greyish-white down the centre, and golden red at the edges, and
crossed with crescent-shaped bars, which vary in number
according to the length of the feather, in the longest feathers
being considerably more than fifty. The central pair are
commonly 5ft. in length.

A very interesting observation was made by the late Mr.
Blyth on the voice of this species. He states: “ I have heard
the call-note of Reeves’s pheasant, and it was some time before
I could satisfy myself that it actually proceeded from such a
bird. It is like the simple song of some small passerine bird,
delivered in as high a key as the song of the hedge sparrow
(Accentor modularis), one of which happened to be singing at
the same time. A repetition of the same note seven or eight

Habits and Character. 199

times over, quite musical, but not loud, being as unlike what
would be expected from such a bird as a pheasant. as the voices
of sundry Columbide are utterly different from what would
have been expected to proceed from pigeons and doves.”’

The late Mr. J. J. Stone, to whom naturalists are so much
indebted for his imtroduction of this and other splendid
pheasants, was of opinion that the value of Reeves’s pheasant
in this country rests mainly upon its size and strength of
flight, making it the prince of game birds for our woods. In
a communication to me on the subject, he wrote : “ The point
IT aim at is to induce the large landed proprietors and game
preservers to introduce the Reeves’s pheasant into their
coverts, believing that it will (from its wild character) afford
the best sport of all the pheasants, and from its size and the
magnificence of its plumage it must be a desirable addition to
our list of game birds. I want to see Reeves’s pheasant
common on the dinner table ; and there is no reason why it
should not be so in a few years, seeing that it is now being
bred freely in Belgium, and may be purchased there at about
the price which the Versicolor still commands, though much
longer introduced into Europe.” Since Mr. Stone’s death
several successful attempts have been made to introduce this
most noble of all the true pheasants into our coverts. But
though the Reeves’ pheasant may be an excellent sporting bird
in coverts which are suitable as regards environment—as will
be seen in the description by Mr. J. G. Millais which follows—
it is not a satisfactory addition to coverts stocked with ordinary
pheasants, being pugnacious and quarrelsome. It will not allow
other birds to feed with it, and as the other cock pheasants run
when the Reeves’ cock comes out into the ride, the methodical
management of birds in covert becomes difficult if not
impossible.

Lord Lilford, writing in March, 1881, gave me the following
information : “ I have kept several in pens, and found them
very uncertain layers, although one season my hen birds laid
an average of twenty eggs apiece, from which a very good

200 . Reeves’s Pheasant.

proportion of young birds were hatched out. My impression
is that these birds lay best—at all events in captivity—at
about their third or fourth year. My gamekeeper, who has had
charge of them, assures me that the young birds are very hardy
and easy to rear. I have in Northamptonshire (the county
in which I have tried these birds) no very large extent of
woodlands of my own, and cannot, therefore, tell you much
of their habits in a wild state, as they are very much given to
roaming to great distances, and a good many have fallen
victims in my neighbour’s woods, besides the large percentage
that may be always allowed in a fox-hunting country. They
have certainly crossed, though not abundantly, with the
common pheasant. The male hybrid of the first cross is a
most splendid bird. Reeves’s pheasant is a very wild, shy
bird, very quick on the wing, somewhat given to go back if
possible, but quickly attains a good height in the air, giving
good rocketing shots. I found them most excellent for the
table—in my opinion far superior to the common pheasant.
I believe, from what I have seen and heard of this species,
that for real success with them in this country a wide range
of hill coverts would be most eligible. I believe that Sir
Dudley Coutts Marjoribanks has had great success with Reeves’s
pheasants in Ross-shire. [am informed that as many as sixty
Reeves’s have been shot in these coverts in a single season.”

Fifteen years after Lord Lilford favoured me with the above
communication he published in “ The Birds of Northampton-
shire ” a further report on this species, in which he maintains its
desirable character as a game bird for ranges of woodland in
mountainous districts. His account is as follows :

“As regards another most beautiful species, known as
Reeves’s or the bar-tailed pheasant, though we have found it
hardy, easy to rear, and excellent for the table, our opinion
is that, as it possesses the roaming instinct in a still higher
degree than the ring-necked species, and is of a very wild and
wary nature, it is not a desirable bird from a sporting point of
view, except in very large ranges of woodland ; and from what

REEVES’S PHEASANT IN FLIGHT.

A Bird of the Mountains. 201

we have heard from a friend, who has been in the native haunts
of this tine bird in the mountains of Northern China, we are
inclined to think that it is more likely to prosper in Scotland
and in Wales than in our own Midlands. The hybrids between
this and the common pheasant are beautiful birds, but not,
so far as we have been able to ascertain, prolific.”

The late Mr. Horne, of Hereford, who reared numbers of

teeves’s pheasants, forwarded to me a letter from a lady
who has been most successful with them in the extreme north
of England. Regarding this species she writes :

“The cock and two hens I purchased have done wonders,
and my estate is now fairly stocked with birds, I having put all
the season’s eggs in nests of the common pheasant, except
a few which I reared myself and a few which I sold. My hens
last season averaged nearly fifty eggs each—not bad laying.”

Not only in the extreme north, but in the more cultivated
parts of England, Reeves’s pheasants have done well. One
gentleman informed me that during the year 1895 he raised
more than twenty in the open, which afterwards attained full
plumage, and found them easy to rear. In January, 1909, a
Reeves’s cock pheasant, measuring 5ft. 9in., is reported to have
been shot at Rolvenden, Kent.

There can be no doubt whatever that, as suggested by
Lord Lilford, the bird being from North China, is hardy and
well adapted to mountainous districts, such as those of Scotland
and Wales. It appears that the easiest way of mtroducing
it as a wild bird in those places to which it is adapted would
be to place the eggs in the nests of pheasants breeding in the
open. eared in those circumstances, the young would be
hardy and vigorous in the extreme, and would be much more
likely to do well than if hand-reared and turned out afterwards.
The hybrids between the Reeves’s and the common species
are generally supposed to be sterile, which may be regarded as
a point in their favour rather than otherwise, as no mongrel
crosses would be introduced, and Reeves’s pheasant could be
confined to those regions to which, by its size and habits, it is

202 Reeves’s Pheasant.

specially adapted. With regard to its beauty and magnificence
there can be no doubt and Lord Lilford speaks practically as
to its value as a bird for the table, but I have never had the
opportunity of testing its value in this respect.

The most important communication respecting the value
of the Reeves’s pheasant as a game bird, and its rearing in
the forests of mountainous districts, was made to the Field on
February 8, 1896, by Mr. J. G. Millais. His letter is as follows :

“T noticed a letter by Mr. Tegetmeier in the Field of
January 25, on the desirability of establishing Reeves’s pheasant
as a British game bird; and as I have seen and shot several
’ of these birds at home, perhaps my observations on the species
may be of some interest.

“There is no game bird, I think, in the world, which, if
introduced into suitable localities, would give greater pleasure.
to both the sportsman and the naturalist than this grand
pheasant ; for grand he certainly is, both to the eye as well
as the object of aim to the expectant shooter. We all know,
when a cock Reeves’s pheasant attains his full beauty and
length of tail, what a splendid bird he is as he struts about.
in his gorgeous trappings, and shows himself off for the benefit.
of his lady-love, but when the same bird is launched in the air,
and dashes along above the highest trees of a wild Scotel
landscape, leaving poor old Colehicus to scurry at what seems
but a slow pace behind him, I can assure your readers that both
the dignity and the pace are alike wonderful, and a sight not.
easily to be forgotten.

“ Until the year 1890 I had seen and shot several Reeves’s
pheasants, and under ordinary conditions of covert shooting
was content to consider the bird hardly a success from a
gunner’s point of view. During that autumn, however, I went
to the annual covert shoot at Guisachan, Lord Tweedmouth’s
beautiful seat, near Beauly, in Ross-shire, and it was there,
amidst the wildest and shaggiest of Scotch scenery—in country
which must to a great extent resemble the true home of the
bird in question—that I had cause to alter my opinion.

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At Guisachan. 203

“Tn one high wood of old Scotch firs, on a steep and broken
hillside above the waterfall, the sight of these birds coming
along only just within gunshot, in company with common
pheasants and blackecocks, I shall never forget. I say ‘in
company with,’ but, as a matter of fact, as soon as one of
the long-tailed sky-rockets cleared the trees, he left the
others far behind, and came forward at a pace which was
little short of terrific. I doubt if any bird of the genus goes
faster.

“ Now this is all that the sportsman wants. Here we have
a bird of unrivalled beauty, great hardihood, and unequalled
pace, which practically fulfils all the conditions which the
modern shooter requires. The only other condition which is
absolutely essential to make the bird a success from this point
of view is its local environment. In this respect Guisachan
is not singular, and I could name a hundred localities in
Scotland, England and Wales where Reeves’s pheasant would
be certain to succeed.

“The Guisachan birds were obtained by the late Lord
Tweedmouth from Balmacaan, the late Lord Seafield’s estate
near Loch Ness, where I have also seen them shot. No artificial
rearing was resorted to; the birds were breeding in a wild
state, and shifting entirely for themselves, except for the
maize which was put down for the ordinary pheasants. At
Balmacaan, where the birds were in low open woods, one may
see Reeves’s pheasants killed in the way in which they should
not be. Here these birds (as is the case when turned down
on any ordinary English preserve) have formed most undesir-
able habits. It is with great difficulty they can be got to
rise at all, and when this is effected they keep low, and afford
no sport whatever. Now, at Guisachan all this is obviated
by the rough nature of the ground. There is heavy bracken,
fallen trees, mountain burns, and, above all, rough heather.
These cause the birds to get up almost at once. The trees
beig high and dense assist their elevation and force them to
a respectable height from the very start.

204. Reeves’s Pheasant.

‘Tn conclusion I should like to make one observation on
the flight of Reeves’s pheasant which I have never seen touched
on before, and which is both interesting and remarkable.
Reeves’s pheasant has the power to stop suddenly when
travelling at its full speed, which may be estimated at nearly
double that of an ordinary pheasant ; and this is performed
by an extraordinary movement when the bird makes up its
mind to alight on some high tree that has taken its faney.
This bird may be said to be furnished with a ‘ Westinghouse
brake’ in the shape of its tail, otherwise the feat would be
impossible. By a sudden and complete turn of the body,
both the expanded wings and tail are presented as a resistance
to the air and the position of the bird is reversed. This acts
as an immediate buffer and brake, and by this means the bird
is enabled to drop head downwards into the tree within the
short space of eight or ten vards.”

Lord Ravensworth, writing of the birds in Ross-shire,
makes the following remarks on the habits of this species :

“The Bar-tail is a true pheasant, well able to take care of
himself in any climate, at any altitude, and is more easily
reared than the common species. He is very shy and wild,
difficult to approach, and takes to his legs long before other
pheasants are conscious of any danger. His flight is pro-
digiously rapid and straight, and he will travel thirty miles
on end, which, of course, is an objectionable practice, except
in such extensive forest grounds as the highlands of Scotland
present. These pheasants travel in troops of fifteen to twenty,
and present a grand and bewildering effect when they rise in
such a company. Any attempt to walk up to them in brush
covert is utterly hopeless, for they are exceedingly vigilant
and go straight off like a dart, not more than six feet from
the ground, far out of reach.”

Mr. J. Mayes, head-keeper to the late Maharajah Duleep
Singh, writing from Elveden, in 1877, stated: “‘ I have bred
the Reeves’s pheasant for the last five or six years, rearing
them by hand, and have had pretty good luck with them the

Hybrids. 205

last two years, having succeeded in rearing about sixty in the
two seasons ; but I find they are much healthier turned out
than when penned up. The soil here is dry and sandy, which
seems to suit them very well. ‘Two years ago I penned up
fifty very fine young birds, about half-grown ; but they swelled
very much about the head, and went completely blind, and
about twenty of them died, but those that we have turned
out seem to be in very good health and condition. As regards
_ hybridizing, I know they will do so, as three vears ago a hen
Reeves escaped from the pens, bred with a common pheasant,
and brought up five very fine young birds, much larger than
the common pheasant, and of beautiful plumage.”

Many specimens of hybrid or cross-bred Reeves have been
reared in confinement. Among them may be mentioned the
offspring of a male Reeves with a Bohemian hen ; it partook,
as may be noticed, of the characters of both species, the tail
bemg of intermediate length, the white cowl, cheek patch,
and neck ring of the Reeves being retained, but the splendid
golden vellow of the body being almost entirely wanting.
Hybrids between a Reeves hen and a Scemmerring cock have
been bred by Mr. Jamrach. The male birds appeared precisely
intermediate between the two parents, having the strongly
barred tail of the Scmmerring and the perfectly marked head
ot the Reeves pheasant. ‘They were exceedingly beautiful.

Hybrids have also been produced between a male Reeves’s
pheasant and female Cheer (P. wallichu), but they have
little beyond their size to recommend them. In appearance
they look like dirty faded Reeves, with comparatively short
tails. They are of large size, like the parent species, and
would in all probability partake of those terrestrial habits of
the Cheer which preclude its being advantageously introduced
as a game bird, as it often refuses to mse, even when hunted
or pursued with dogs.

A singular hybrid was produced and described by Mr. R.
Sanders, of Heavitree, who wrote : “* I have three most beautiful
male birds, bred between the Reeves and Gold. The size is

206 Reeves’s Pheasant.

about that of the male Reeves, but the plumage does not in the
least partake of that of either parent; if is very much like
that of the copper pheasant of China (of which I had several
some years since), but not so dark. The chief colour
is a soft light brown, running into a light copper; the
marking on the head is somewhat after the Reeves; the tail
very long.”

Through the kindness of Sir Digby Pigott I have received
gome interesting statements respecting the fertility of cross-
bred Reeves, and other pheasants, as reared on Lord Ducie’s
estate. His lordship, writing to Sir Digby, says :

‘“My keeper knows of no case where hybrid Reeves have
proved fertile.

‘Reeves hybridizes with Common, Gold, and Silver
pheasant, but for one generation only.

“The hybrid between Reeves and Gold has occurred once
in the wild state and once in confinement.

‘Reeves and Common pheasant makes a fine cross. The
resulting bird has a strange cry. I can detect them 200 to
300 yards, as it is very loud.

‘Reeves in a wild state produces about five eggs, and
rarely rears more than four young; the Gold pheasant pro-
duces six to seven eggs. But natural or wild breeding is
rare here, owing to the foxes.

‘The Gold pheasant seems to prefer the ridges of Car-
boniferous limestone.

“The Reeves pheasant strays sporadiszally. By rearing
forty to fifty annually I can keep up the number.

“The Gold pheasant is abundant here. Traces of an
Amherst cock (long since dead) are to be seen in the white
tippet and red tinge of the crest feathers; this latter sign
gradually wears out. The ‘ tippet ” seems to be more per-
manent.

‘Silver and Reeves pheasants have bred together. The
result is a certain amount of brown colour on the back and in
the tail feathers. I have little experience of this cross.”

First and Second Crosses. 207

On the Elveden estate a hybrid Reeves is said to have
proved fertile, and Sir Digby Pigott on inquiry has received
the following letter from the head gamekeeper, W. Hill :—

“T had some four or five Reeves hybrids (hens) penned
with the common pheasant, [. colchicus, about three seasons
ago, and they were fertile and several young were reared.

“T have also known of several second, and I may say third
crosses, but the curious fact is that whereas the first cross is
a magnificent bird of great weight and beauty, the second
cross is much smaller, and the third smaller still—-not so large
as a medium common pheasant hen.”’

Lord Redesdale informs Sir D. Pigott that he has always
found the hybrid Reeves infertile, so that the fertility of this
cross must still be regarded as very uncertain.

SR BY DONE NANG

NO

IN
ROWOOCAGNCYGNOFA'S

CHAPTER XV.

The Sungarian Pheasant
(Phasianus alpherakyi).

HIS beautiful pheasant inhabits the north central

parts of Manchuria and probably the north-east of

Mongolia, and according to the account given by
Mr. Buturlin in his excellent article on the true pheasants
published in the Ibis, 1904, it is abundant in the middle
Sungari. Owing to some confusion which arose with regard
to the naming of this species, Mr. Buturlin found it necessary
to give it a new name; he therefore called it after the well-
known Russian zoologist, Mr. 8. N. Alpheraky, who sent the
first specimen to him for description.

In April, 1903, a large consignment of Sungarian pheasants,
in a frozen condition, reached the London market vid the
Siberian Railway, and by the kindness of Mr. Carstang I
obtained some perfect specimens. At that time the distinction
between the Sungarian and Hagenbeck’s pheasants was not
recognised, and the description and name of the latter were
applied to the new bird. The male bird was 33lb. in weight,
and its extreme length was 38in. from the beak to the point of
the tail. The hen weighed 24]b.

IT am indebted to Mr. F. W. Frohawk for the follwing
description of the Sungarian pheasant, the skin of which is
still in his collection :

Mare.—Forehead, deep black-green ; crown, pale greenish
olive blending into greyish on nape ; lower nape, bronze-green,
superciliary band broad, extending almost to bill, pure white
with terminal green tufts ; conspicuous white ear spot ; throat
and neck, deep violet green, becoming purple on sides ; collar,
pure white, very broad, meeting at lower edge in front ;

SUNGARIAN PHEASANT (Phasianus alpherakyi).

The Sungarian Pheasant. 209

mantle, deep straw-yellow, streaked with blackish and metallic
green ; scapulars, broadly margined with chestnut-buff reflecting
purple gold, milk-white centres; wing coverts, lilac-grey ;
secondaries, ochreous and ashy-grey margined with rich
coppery-chestnut reflecting purple; primaries, brown barred
with white ; lower back, lhlac-grey shot with green, vermiculated
with black and ochreous ; rump and tail coverts, green-grey
shading into golden rufus on sides; breast, golden coppery,
reflecting amethystine purple, narrowly streaked with black ;
flank feathers, straw-yellow with green-black terminal patches ;
belly, black-violet green, becoming brown towards vent ;
under tail coverts, deep chestnut; tail, greyish-ochreous
transverse bars, black, outer half rich chestnut ; central tail
feathers, 22in. long. FrMALE.—Has the neck, mantle, and
tail shot with lilac, the feathers of the upper parts chestnut-
brown, margined with whitish ; basal portions, black.

The Sungarians are obviously true pheasants, larger
in size than our ordmary species. They would doubtless
interbreed freely with any species of pheasants already intro
duced, and, from their great size and gorgeous coloration,
would be grand and most acceptable additions to our coverts—
always provided, of course, that their capacities for flight are
equal to their other fme qualities, as to which point there is
still room for experiment.

CHAPTER XVI.

The Prince of Wales’s Pheasant

(Phasianus principalis).

N April, 1885, Dr. Sclater exhibited at the Zoological

Society skins of a pair of pheasants, brought from Baal

Murghab, North Afghanistan, belonging to the Prince of
Wales, and read extracts relating to the specimens from a
letter addressed by Mr. Condie Stephen to Sir Dighton
Probyn.

‘These pheasants,” writes Mr. Stephen, “abound in the
reeds fringing this river, rising in places in far larger numbers
than I have seen in any battue in England. You can imagine
what a quantity there must be from the fact that we killed
more than four hundred on our march of thirty miles up the
river, mostly cocks.”’

The living specimens, which were subsequently received
in the gardens, and from which the engraving was taken,
were obtained by Major Peacock from the Afghan frontier,
but in consequence of their being received in very poor condi-
tion, they all died without having produced any young.

The most important characteristic of this fine bird, and
one that distinguishes it from all the pheasants first naturalised
in this country, is that the wing coverts are white, a character
which it has in common with the Mongolian pheasant, P.
mongolicus ; but it differs in the markings and arrangement
of the colours, and has consequently been regarded as a distinct
species, and named P. principalis, in commemoration of the
fact that the skins were received from his late Majesty King
Edward VII. when Prince of Wales.

(Phasianus principalis),

ASANT

1
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WALES'S PHE

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In its Native Swamps. PRE

It has been successfully introduced and reared in our
coverts by Colonel Marsden Sunderland, and is a most valuable
addition to our coverts, giving size and hardihood to our
native birds. The plumage is beautifully spangled with
bright purplish black on a rich golden red ground, the white
shoulders and dark flight feathers standing out in strong
contrast ; but there is no ring around the neck, as in the
Chinese pheasant.

In its habits it differs somewhat from our common species
in frequenting swampy ground covered with reeds, returning
to the covert to roost at night. In its native habitat it is
most abundant. At Masuchak, on the Upper Murghab, in
Northern Afghanistan, Major Durand and Major Yate, as
recorded in the latter officer’s letters from the ‘“ Afghan
Boundary Commission,’ brought in a bag of nearly fifty
specimens killed during the afternoon. “ It is extraordinary,”’
Major Yates remarks, ‘‘ what a number of pheasants there are
in the reed swamps of this valley, and this year they seem to
be even more numerous than last. I know of no country in
the world where one can get such good real wild-pheasant
shooting as this. On the 21st we also brought in a bag of
seventy-two pheasants, but, as on the first day, lost a good
many wounded birds. The reeds are so thick, and the birds,
especially the old cocks, so strong, that it is very hard to bag
one’s bird even after it is shot.”

Dr. Aitchison, writing of this pheasant in the Transactions
of the Linnean Society, says: “‘ The specimens of this pheasant
were all got on the banks of the Bala Murghab, where it occurs
in considerable numbers in the tamarisk and grass jungle
growing in the bed of the river. More than four hundred
were killed in the march of thirty miles up this river. It not
only wades through the water in trying to make from one
point of vantage to another, but swims, and seems to be
quite at home in these thickets, where there is always water
to the depth of two or three feet. These swampy localities

afford good shelter. In the mornings and evenings the
P2

2 The Prince of Wales’s Pheasant.

pheasants leave it for the more open and dry country, where
they pick up their food. I believe the same species is found
on the Hari-rud river, but I have seen no specimens from that
locality.”

It is not without interest to note that the Prince of Wales’s
pheasant has not infrequently made its appearance in con-
siderable numbers in the London markets, having been
imported through Russia in a frozen state, and it is said that
the late Mr. Seebohm, after having given £10 for one of the
original skins received from Afghanistan, supplemented it
the following year by a couple bought for a few shillings in
Leadenhall Market.

The general introduction of this pheasant into our coverts
would be advantageous, not only on account of its size and
plumage, but still more so from the fact that, having been
reared on swampy ground, there are many localities in which
it would be a desirable addition to our coverts. The history
of its introduction into this country as a wild bird is given in
the following communication by Colonel M. Sunderland :

“In 1901 I read in Tegetmeier’s work on pheasants that
the Prince of Wales’s pheasant would be a welcome addition
to the British coverts, and I therefore determined to introduce
this beautiful bird into Europe. I first tried the importation
of eggs, but they proved a dismal and costly failure. In the
autumn of 1902 I went to the East, and succeeded in securing
several birds. No one could positively inform me whether
this species of pheasant was polygamous or not, so I brought
to England an equal number of cocks and hens. A useless
precaution, for the cocks fought for the hens in the usual
manner. ‘The birds stood the long journey very well, and were
turned down into large enclosures in Hampshire at the end of
February, 1908. They did not begin to lay till the end of April,
but laid very freely, those in one pen averaging over thirty
eggsahen. Virtually all the eggs proved fertile. They hatched
extremely well, and the strong chicks proved fully as easy to
rear as those from the ordinary pheasant. They were fed on

An Experiment. 213

custard and oatmeal, &c., as recommended by Tegetmeier.
They were brought up in fields of standing corn and buckwheat,
surrounded by wire fences ten feet high, and the farm-yard hens
employed as foster mothers were at large in these fields. The
birds were pinioned when five days old. I wanted them
to be able to fly a little, and severed the wing joint with
scissors, so as to leave them with two flight feathers. This
has proved a costly blunder, for with only these two flight
feathers the birds could fly over the ten feet of wire with the
greatest ease. It was quite a business to catch them in
October, when I moved into Sussex, and indeed I left several
birds in the woods of Conholt Park. Before turning them
down in Sussex I removed the two flight feathers from each
bird, but despite all precautions some of the birds still fly
over the wire. In shooting my woods several were seen, and
two were shot, being mistaken for ordinary wild birds, so
well did they fly. Each pen consists of several acres of wood,
pasture, and arable land, which will be sown with corn and
buckwheat. Only five hens and one (unrelated) cock run
to the acre, therefore this breed of pheasant should remain
free from all civilised diseases. I may mention that I have
noticed that the birds are extremely fond of the flower of the
common charlock.”

By the courtesy of Colonel Sunderland I had the pleasure
of exhibiting at the British Ornithologists’ Club, on Wednesday,
December 16, 1903, a magnificent stuffed specimen of a male
Prince of Wales’s pheasant, in superb plumage and of great
size. It was the first seen that had been reared wild in our
coverts during that year. I also showed an imported hen
in the flesh, which, although it had the whole of the primary
feathers of one wing cut off, was capable of flying so well as
to be shot in mistake for an ordinary bird. The hens of this
species are remarkable for the absence of marking on the breast,
and the strongly marked bars on the whole of the flight feathers.
I cannot refrain from calling attention to the great success in
rearing these birds, which is detailed in Colonel Sunderland’s

914 The Prince of Wales’s Pheasant.

communication—a success obviously due to the size of his pens,
and to his young birds being allowed to roam at large under
their foster parents and obtain a great part of their own food
from the corn, buckwheat, and the artichokes grown in these

pens for their use.

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PHEASANT (Phasianus semmerringii).

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CHAPTER XVII.

Scemmerring’s Pheasant

ee ee
(Phastanus seemmerringii).

GIMMERRING’S pheasant is an exquisitely beautiful
S species inhabiting Japan. In the southern islands,
Kin-Shin and Hondo, it is very numerous, and is com-
monly exposed for sale in the markets of Nagasaki. In other
districts of the country its place seems to be supplied by the
P. versicolor. It was known to Temminck only by the dried
skins, but subsequently the living bird has been introduced
into aviaries in Europe, and it has bred in the zoological gardens
in London and Antwerp. In the Regent’s Park Garden it
first bred, according to Bartlett, in 1865, when the female laid
ten eggs, but only a few birds were hatched, and the young
birds died in a few days. Since then the breeding has been
more successful, and mature specimens have been reared.
This species, however, is but ill-adapted to breed in con-
finement, as the males are excessively pugnacious—not only
destroying one another, but even killing the females. The
tendency is probably developed by captivity, and no doubt, if
placed in a free range, Scemmerring’s pheasant would prove
as fertile as the other species. The late Mr. A. D. Bartlett,
writing of this species in Elliot’s monograph, says: “* Amongst
the Phasianide some species are remarkable for their pugna-
cious and fierce dispositions ; not only the males, but frequently
the females destroy each other. The want of sufficient space
and means of escape among bushes, shrubs, and trees is no
doubt the cause of many females being killed when kept in
confinement ; and this serious misfortune is unhappily of no
rare occurrence. After the cost and trouble of obtaining pairs
of these beautiful birds, and when they have recovered from

216 Scemmerring’s Pheasant.

their long confinement on the voyage, their owner is desirous
of reaping a reward by obtaining an abundant supply of
eggs as the birds approach the breeding season, he finds, alas !
that some disturbance has occurred, the place is filled with
feathers, and the female bird, from which he expected so much,
is found dead or dying, her head scalped, her eyes picked out,
or some other serious injury inflicted.”

The habits of this magnificent bird are thus described by
Cassin in Commodore Perry’s ‘‘ Expedition to the China Seas
and Japan, 1852-54” :

“This is undoubtedly the most beautiful of all the true
pheasants, and will compare in. richness and brilhancy of
colour with almost any other species of bird. In the adult
male the neck and back are of a deep golden red, with a metallic
lustre of great beauty, but the female-is exceedingly plain and
unpretending.

“Like the P. versicolor, the present is only known as a
bird of Japan ; and but a few years have elapsed since it was
first introduced to the attention of naturalists by the celebrated
Professor Temminck, well known as the most distinguished of
European ornithologists. It appears to inhabit the same
districts of country as the versicolor, and to subsist on much
the same description of food ; but we regret to say that the
gentlemen of the expedition had no opportunity for observing
this species to such an extent as to enable us to make any
important contribution to its history.

‘“‘ Nothing having previously been published in relation to
this beautiful pheasant, we have exerted ourselves to obtain
all available information, and have great pleasure in again
acknowledging our obligations to Mr. Heine, the accomplished
artist of the expedition, for the following note :

“* On one of my excursions I came very suddenly upon
another species of pheasant,-of very beautiful colours, and
with a very long tail. Being in the midst of briars, and in an
inconvenient position, I missed him, or at least did not injure
him further than to shoot off his two long tail feathers.

In the Japanese Mountains. 217

‘“* Returning on board in the evening, I found that our
chaplain, the Rev. George Jones, had purchased a pheasant of
the same kind from a Japanese root-digger in the hills. It
was not wounded or otherwise injured, and seemed to have
been either caught in a trap or found dead. To my inquiries
of the Japanese Dutch interpreter whether these birds were
ever hunted, I could obtain but evasive answers; but if,
however, such is the case, the right is undoubtedly reserved
to the princes and nobility.

“*Tt appears that both these kinds of pheasants inhabit
similar localities, and are abundant over the southern and the
middle parts of the island of Nipon, for even. during my
rambles in the vicinity of Yokohama, in the Bay of Yeddo,
I could hear their calls in the little thickets and woods scattered
over the country.’

“ For the following note on the bird now before us, and
the preceding species, we are indebted to the kindness of
Joseph Wilson, jun., M.D., of the United States Navy, who
was attached as surgeon to the squadron of the expedition :

“Our acquaintance with the pheasants of Japan began
soon after our arrival at Simoda, or about the middle of April,
1854. A Japanese brought to the landing-place a young
bird, which, with the dark tips on his downy covering, and his
frequently repeated “ peet-peet,” might have been mistaken
for a young turkey but for his diminutive size. This
interesting little fellow had been obtained by hatching
an egg of a wild pheasant, obtained in the hills, under a
domestic fowl.

““ A few days after this a male pheasant in full plumage
was brought to the same place, dead but uninjured, and
evidently but very recently killed. The golden brilliancy of
the bird’s plumage is probably not exceeded by any object in
Nature, and is quite equal in lustre to the most brilliant
markings of the humming-birds, or the most highly burnished
metal. This splendid colouring covers the whole body of the
bird, merely shaded with a little coppered-red about the tips

218 Soemmerring’s Pheasant.

and margins of the feathers, so as to show the lance-head
form of the feathers. This specimen was taken on board the
flagship Independence and preserved.

‘““* The specimen of the other species that I saw was shot
by Mr. Heine, who made a very beautiful painting of it. The
two birds are found in the same localities, and seem to be
similar in habits.

“*The Japanese system of agriculture, although very
minute, and appropriating all available land to some useful
purpose, yet affords abundant shelter for the native fauna.
Searcely any land is tilled except such as can be watered, so
that the tops of hills and large portions of mountainous and
precipitous places are appropriated to the growth of timber,
or left covered with the primitive forest. These wooded
districts afford shelter for wild hogs, foxes, and racoons (the
skins of which were seen), as well as for the pheasants ; and
they all descend in turn to plunder the crops, or steal the
chickens in the valleys. During the first part of our stay at
Simoda the cultivated fields afforded no food for the pheasants.
The natives told us there were plenty in the hills ; but no one
was willing to undertake to show them, and several rambles
through the bushes where these birds were supposed to feed
ended in disappointment. Only once I had a glimpse of a
brood of young ones near a hut in the mountains, but they
immediately disappeared by running very rapidly. Perhaps
one reason of our want of success is to be found in the fact
that the wheat was ripe, and partially harvested before we left
(June 24), so that during the time of our efforts they were
enabled to fill their crops occasionally from the wheatfields,
and lie very close in the hills during the day, without being
under the necessity of wandering in search of food.

‘“* The note of one or the other of these species of pheasants
was heard frequently. On the top of a precipitous hill, about
a mile south of Simoda, covered by small pines and a very
thick growth of shrubbery, a pheasant (so we were assured
by the Japanese) passed the weary hours while his mate was

A Darwinian Theory. 219

on her nest, and very sensibly solaced himself and her with
such music as he was capable of making. It was, however,
anything but melodious, and may be represented as a sort of
compound of the filing of a saw and the screech of a peacock.
There are two notes only, uttered in quick succession, and
represented by the Japanese name of the bird—J1-j2 ; but the
second note is much longer, louder, and more discordant,
in fact has more of the saw-filing character—Ivee-jaeae. These
two notes are uttered, and if the bird is not disturbed they are
repeated in about five minutes. A good many attempts,
perhaps twenty, to become better acquainted with this
individual all failed. It seemed impossible to make him fly,
though his covert was by no means extensive.’ ”’

This species is readily distinguished by the widely separated
transverse bands on the tail of the male, and the short, rounded
tail of the female (Sin. in length, that of the male being 23in.),
the feathers of which are tipped with white at the extremity.
We are not aware of any hybrids between this and allied species,
although their production would be very interesting as bearing
on a suggestion made by Darwin to the effect that “ if the female
S@mmerring pheasant with her short tail were crossed with
the male common pheasant, there could be no doubt that the
male hybrid offspring would have a much longer tail than that
of the pure offspring of the common pheasant. On the other
hand, if the female common pheasant, with her tail nearly
twice as long as that of the female Scemmerring pheasant,
were crossed with the male of the latter, the male hybrid
offspring would have a much shorter tail than that of the pure
offspring of Scemmerring’s pheasant.’”—** The Descent of
Man,” Vol. IT., p. 156.

The following description of the two sexes is taken from
Gould’s “‘ Birds of Asia ’”’: ‘‘ The male has the whole of the
upper surface and throat of a fine coppery brown, with a
lighter border to each feather, which in some lghts appear
of a purple hue; in others rich coppery red, and in others
again bright but deep flame colour—this latter tint being

220 Scemmerring’s Pheasant.

especially conspicuous on the lower part of the back and upper
tail coverts. This is the general appearance. On examining
each feather singly, it is found to be grey at the base, dark
rich brown in the middle, with a broad stripe down the centre,
and on each side of dark coppery brown, with a lustrous stripe
on each side of the tip ; wing coverts the same, but devoid of
the lustre at the tips ; a few of the greater coverts with a narrow
bar of creamy white at the tip, within which is a still narrower
one of black. Primaries dark brown, crossed by irregular
broken bands of a tawny hue ; secondaries dark brown, freckled
near the tip with tawny, and a large patch of deep rufous
near the end of the outer web, becoming much paler at the
extremity ; on the tips at the inner webs of several of them
the double mark of white and black, as on the greater coverts.
Tail rich chestnut red with black shafts, and crossed at intervals
of about two inches with a narrow irregular band of black, and
a second broader and more decided band of the same colour—
the space between the bands being of a.similar but paler tint
than the body of the feather ; the second band of black, more-
over, becomes broader, and gradually blends with the general
colours of the feathers as they approach the extremity—on
some the intermediate pale band is white; feathers of the
under surface marked like the upper, but the bordering is not
luminous, and terminates in dull grey, within which, on the
lower part of the sides of the abdomen, is a narrow line of
white ; eye orbits red ; bill brown colour ; feet bluish-brown
colour.

“The female has a patch of dark brown at the back of
the head, with a narrow bordering of rufous at the end of
each feather ; feathers of the head and upper surface generally
mottled with rufous, with a narrow edging of black at the tip,
and with a stripe down the centre, which on the sides of the
neck and shoulders is white, and on the other parts deep
buff ; rump and upper tail coverts deep rust red, each feather
faintly barred with dark brown, some of the wing coverts
marked at the tip with black and white, as in the male, but

Plumage. | 22]

the marks are broader, and not so pure; throat, deep buff ;
feathers of the under surface, brown, largely striped down
the centre, and tipped with pale or creamy buff, and bordered
on each side with tawny ; tail, short, central feathers greyish
brown, freckled with dark brown; lateral feathers rufous,
crossed obliquely near the tip with dark brown. beyond which
the end is white.”

Under the title of P. scintillans, a variety of this pheasant
has been described as a distinct species, but it appears to differ
only in the male having the feathers on the back more or less
completely margined or tipped with white.

Mr. W. R. Ogilvie-Grant, in his ““ Handbook to the Game
Birds,”’ writes: “‘ It can only be recognised as a well-marked
variety, for it not only occurs in the same islands where the
P. semmerringt is found, but every intermediate stage of
plumage between the two forms may be seen.”

Z

SZCDROY DN OY HOM NOAA NOADNG)
So ARAN

:

CHAPTER XVIII.

Pheasants Adapted to the Aviary.

The Golden Pheasant
(Thawmalea picta).

account of the beauty of their plumage, the two species

of the genus Thaumalea occupy a very prominent
position. These birds have been separated from the more
typical pheasants (which have been already described as con-
stituting the restricted genus Phasianus) by several well-
marked characters, the most conspicuous of which are the
presence of a crest of silky feathers on the crown of the head,
and a tippet of broad flat feathers encircling the upper part
of the neck. The Golden Pheasant (Thaumalea picta) has
been long known in captivity in Europe; it was described
by Linneus under the name of -Phasianus pictus in 1766,
but of its habits in its native country nothing whatever had
been ascertained ; even its exact locality was doubtful until
more recent explorations in China. It is now known to inhabit
the mountains of the western central districts, and it has
been shot by Europeans on the banks of the Yang-tsze, one
hundred miles north of Hankow. In the north of China it is,
according to Pere David, quite unknown.

In its mature plumage the male is one of the most gorgeous
of the whole tribe. The head is ornamented with a long
crest of silky orange-coloured feathers. This extends back-
wards over a tippet formed of broad flat feathers, which are
of a deep orange colour, with dark blue bars across the tips ;
these latter form, when the feathers are in position, a series
of horizontal lines across the tippet. During the courtship

A MONGST the birds that are reared in our aviaries on

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Courtship. 223

of the female this collar or tippet is brought over to the side
nearest to the hen, as has been described by the late Mr. T. W.
Wood, who paid great attention to the amatory displays
of birds. Respecting that of the Golden Pheasant he writes :
“Not the least remarkable example of the lateral mode of
display during courtship is that of the Golden Pheasant,
whose elegant form and brilliant colouring are so well known
in this country. The male runs very playfully after the female,
and, placing himself in front of her, quickly expands his collar,
bringing nearly the whole of it round to the side where it is
to be exhibited, and thereby presenting to view a flat disc
of bright orange-red, banded with perfect regularity by blue-
black semicircles; the hen, on seeing this, frequently runs
away pursued by her would-be mate, who generally finds
himself placed with his other side towards her, and the collar
is accordingly shown on that side. At the moment the full
expansion of the collar takes place the bird utters a very
snake-like hiss, which, according to our notions, would not
be very fascinating as a love-song; the body is very much
distorted, as is the case with the true pheasants, but the tail
1s not spread so much, as the curved, roof-like shape prevents
its forming a flat surface. Shght breaks would occur in the
black stripes of the collar when expanded, were it not that
each feather has a second black stripe which is so placed as
effectually to prevent this.”

Below the tippet on the lower part of the neck the feathers
are deep-green margined with velvet black ; below this again
are the scapular feathers of a dark crimson; the back and
rump are golden yellow; the tail itself is very long, the two
longest central feathers are covered with small irregular
eircles of light-brown on a dark ground, giving them a mottled
appearance ; the other feathers are barred diagonally with
dark brown on a lighter ground. On each side of the base
of the tail extend the long narrow upper tail coverts of a bright
orange crimson. ‘The wings when closed show the deep blue
fertiaries covering the chestnut secondary quills. The upper

224 The Golden Pheasant.

part of the throat is light brown ; the breast and under parts
orange-scarlet. Taken altogether, its appearance is so remark-
able that it looks more like one of the bizarre creations of
Chinese fancy than a real bird. The birds of this genus
differ from the true pheasants, in the fact that the mature
masculine plumage is not assumed until the autumn of the
second year ; the young cocks looking, during the first twelve
months of their lives, very much like the hens, from which
however, they can be readily distinguished by pulling one or
two of the feathers of the neck, which are reproduced of the
distinctive masculine character.

The hens are very plain and unobtrusive, being barred
with alternate shades of light and dark brown. When barren,
they, like the other birds of the family, assume the more
gorgeous apparel of the male.

Under the name of the Black-Throated or Java Golden
Pheasant (Thawmalea obscura), a variety of this bird has been
described as a good “species.” It has-never been obtained
in a wild state, and is evidently merely a variety that, like
the black-winged peacock, may appear at any time amongst
birds of the ordinary type, and could never be regarded as a
species by those who have studied the subject of variation
practically. It differs merely in the upper part of the throat
being darker in colour and obscurely spangled, in the pattern
of the mottling of the upper tail feathers, and in the general
darker hue of the females and young.

One of the best. and most complete accounts of the habits
and management of the Golden Pheasant in confinement is
that written by Mr. W. Sinclaire, of Belfast, and published
in Thompson’s “‘ Natural History of Ireland,” Vol. II., p. 24.
Mr. Sinclaire writes :

‘Golden Pheasants are-very easily reared in confinement,
and are quite as hardy as any of the other pheasants, or as
any of our domestic fowls ; indeed, I question if any of them
are sooner able to provide a subsistence for themselves, or to
live independent of the parent bird. In the several years,

t

—

Rearing the Young Birds. py:

experience I have had in the rearing of these birds, I have
considered them past all danger when they arrived at the age
of three or four weeks; in fact, at that age those which I
brought up in the garden began to leave the bantam hen
which hatched them and take to the gooseberry bushes to
perch at night, and very soon after to the apple trees. I
always observed that they roosted at the extremity of the
branches, where they were quite safe from the attacks of cats
or other vermin. This habit, together with their very early
disposition to roost at night, leads me to infer that their
introduction into this country as a game bird would not be
difficult ; and that in our large demesnes, where protected
from shooters, they would become very numerous. But I
should imagine that they would not answer where the common
pheasants were already introduced, as they are shy, timid
birds, and would be easily driven off by the other species.
The individuals before referred to, which were reared in the
garden, consisted of a family of six; they always remained
in the garden, where they were regularly fed, except at the
commencement of winter, when they ceased roosting in the
apple trees, took to a belt of Scotch firs which bounded the
garden on one side, and roosted in them all the winter and
following spring. I have seen them sitting in the trees when
the branches were laden with snow, but they did not seem to
suffer in the slightest degree from the severity of winter.
About the month of February they first began to wander
from the garden for short distances, and, as the spring
advanced, finally disappeared, and I never could hear of their
being met with afterwards.

“In rearing the young I found that the very best food for
them, and of which they were most fond, was the larve of
the bluebottle fly, with a quantity of which I always was
prepared prior to the young being hatched. I took care to
have a constant supply during the season by hanging a cow’s
liver over a barrel, in the bottom of which was some bran or
sawdust, into which the maggots dropped. A fresh liver was

Q

226 The Golden Pheasant.

hung up about once a week. In addition to these larve, the
young were supplied with potatoes, alum curd, groats, and
Indian corn meal; this last I found they were very fond of,
and it seemed to agree with them particularly well. It was
mixed into the form of soft dough with a lttle water, which
was all that was required. They were also constantly supplied
with green food, such as lettuce, when they were in the aviary.
But the best way is to have a coop, railed in front, into which
they are put with the hen twenty-four hours after they are
hatched. This coop should be placed upon a gravel walk as
near to the windows of the house as possible, so that they
may always be within observation ; a small verdure garden
is the best possible locality, as the young have plenty of range,
with shelter under the bushes from both sun and rain. In
the instance which I have already alluded to, the hen was
allowed to range about six feet from the coop, by means of
a small cord attached to a leather strap round one of her legs,
and the other end tied to the coop ; the young pheasants never
wandered far from the hen, and always came into the coop
to remain with her at night. In front of each coop a small
frame was put down, boxed round on three sides, without a
bottom, and railed at top ; the open side was put close to the
coop, and the young birds could run through the rails of the
coop into the enclosed space, and were safe from the night
attacks of cats, rats, &c. This frame was always kept before
the coops for the first few days after the young were hatched,
and until they became acquainted with the call of the hen.
When I first began to rear young pheasants I could not at all
account for their seemingly foolish manner for the first two
or three days after being hatched ; they would run gaping
about without appearing to notice the hen or her calls to them
to come for food. The reason of this I afterwards believed to
have been owing to their ignorance of the language of their
foster-mother, which it took some time for them to under-
stand ; during this process it is necessary to keep them con-
fined within the frame before their coops, as, were they to

In the Aviary. 227

wander a few yards from the hen, they would not heed her
call, and would inevitably perish.

“When three or four weeks old, it is necessary, if reared
for the aviary, to pinion them, which is done by cutting off
rather more than the first jomt of the wing, having previously,
by means of a needle and thread, inserted close to the small
wing-bone and brought round the large one just within the
skin, taken up the main blood vessels ; the piece of the wing
is then chopped off on a block. There is no loss of blood, and
I never could observe that the birds seemed to suffer in the
slightest degree afterwards, although the operation I daresay
was painful enough. My reason for taking off rather more
than the first joint of the wing was because I found that if
only the first jomt was taken off, the birds were always able,
when grown up, to get out of the aviary, which was about
12ft. high, and I found it thus requisite to take off so much
as to render them incapable of any attempt at flying; but I
left enough remaining to enable them to reach their roosting-
place at night. I furnished them with a kind of ladder by
nailing cross-pieces of wood on a long piece about 3in. wide,
which they very soon learned to walk up and down with
facility. One aviary in which I kept some had a back wall
to it covered with old ivy, and they preferred roosting in
this ; indeed, I always found that, although during a wet day
those which were at liberty took shelter under a roof, yet
at night they would not do so, but would instead roost in the
open air. The females will lay about twenty-five eggs each
in the aviary. I always provided them with baskets to lay
in, which they only sometimes made use of ; they take twenty-
four days to hatch. The young cocks do not attain their
full plumage until after the moult of the second summer ;
they drop their chicken feathers when about three months
old; their plumage is then something like the hen’s, but
sufficiently bright in some parts as easily to distinguish them
from the young females. In general, there are more cocks
than hens.

Q2

ws

28 The Golden Pheasant.

“Tf the cock birds are placed in a portion of the aviary
apart from hens, any number may be kept together. I have
had as many as twelve males in full plumage together, and
when during the summer (and indeed at all times) these beau-
tiful birds were going through the very curious and fanciful
attitudes and manoeuvres peculiar to them, it was one of the
most brilliant sights to be observed in nature. The flashing
of their various golden, crimson, blue, and purple plumes
in different lights was absolutely dazzling to the eye, and
at these times they contrive to display all the most beautiful
parts of their plumage to the utmost advantage ; the golden
crest is raised, the splendid orange and purple tipped collar
is spread out to its full extent, while the scarlet tail coverts
are shown in all their beauty. During the whole time the
birds are leaping and dancing round each other, and uttering
occasionally their peculiar shrill ery.”

Mr. Thompson states that he has never known the Golden
Pheasant to live longer than ten or eleven years, and that
those which came under his knowledge “ died almost instanta-
neously, and when in the highest possible condition as to
flesh and plumage,” death being apparently induced by high
condition and over-fatness.

Respecting their management in aviaries still more confined
for space, my friend the late Mr. Ed. Hewitt kindly gave me
the following notes :

“As I kept the Golden Pheasants many years with success,
a few hints may be acceptable to beginners. They may
with proper care be reared perfectly tame, but have always
a tendency to be alarmed at the sudden appearance of strange
dogs, cats, or even individuals, for which reason I think it
advisable they should be pinioned if allowed an out-of-door
run, lest they may be tempted to fly away or on to the sur-
rounding buildings; for, unlike common poultry, they are
only tempted to return with great difficulty, as the moment
they get from their accustomed range they seem as wild and
uncontrollable as birds reared in a state of Nature. Pinioning

Methods of Breeding. 229

can be easily managed with out the slightest detriment to the
appearance of the bird. Let it, too, be always kept m mind,
in handling pheasants, never to lay hold of the legs Oe ae
for injury is certain to ensue ; but take up the bird with both
hands tightly round the body over the wings. This is the
only safe way of capture, and they then may be taken about
without injury at all, either to their plumage or to themselves.

““T would advise aviaries for their accommodation to be
covered in entirely from the rain, as nothing tends so much to
keep them in perfect feather ; and then it will not be by any
means difficult to guard them against another great anno”.
ance—that of cats prowling about during the nent and ats
twilight, From this cause Pyiuoers of pheasants of either
kind have been destroyed, not from an actual hurt received
from the eat, but from the birds in their fright flying furiously
against the roof or the wirework, and scalping themselves.
This may be prevented by letting a ‘ tar-sheet ’ be fixed closely
every night, to cover the whole of the open work of the aviary.
It has this double service: it prevents sudden rain wetting
the sanded floor and causing damp (producing rheumatism
in the inmates), and by being opaque prevents the shadow
of passing cats being seen; for if they see cats at night the
birds will fly, and thus seriously damage themselves. I found
simple canvas for this purpose of no use whatever, being
semi-transparent ; the tar-sheet is effective from its density.
It is on moonlight nights that the greatest danger is to be
feared, for on these occasions the cats come very long distances,
attracted no doubt by scent, and when they have once found
your birds will be sure to pay them almost nightly visits.
As the birds are valued for their beauty, it will add consider-
ably to the perfection of their plumage to place a sufficiency
of perches for their accommodation ; not spare and thin ones,
but made of deal spars about 14in. square, the sharp edges
being taken off with a plane. This will prevent their tails
rubbing, and, whether they are intended for attraction or sale,
will add not a little to their value.

230 The Golden Pheasant.

“In selecting the brood stock, a cock with four or even
five hens will be a fair proportion. I always prefer a cock
bird of the second year and hens of the same age (because
they lay far more eggs), though the eggs of pullets of the
preceding year are productive. The young hens will only
lay ten or twelve eggs in a season, but the older birds when
carefully managed will frequently lay thirty to forty eggs in
the same period. These eggs require a longer incubation
than those of common fowls, as they generally hatch on the
twenty-fourth day, though I have repeatedly known them
continue in the shell a day longer; therefore, if desirous of
rearing a chicken or two with them (to insure greater
familiarity), the fowls’ eggs must be deposited accordingly,
as nothing tends so sadly to unsettle a hen at hatching time
as some portions of her chicks coming a day or two previously
to the remainder, and it not unfrequently leads to the desertion
of her nest.

“ The eggs laid in an aviary should be at once removed
from Golden Pheasants directly they are laid ; the cocks being
especially inclined to peck and eat them the moment they
are produced. The best remedy I know is to procure half
a dozen artificial eggs, and let them lie about always, and
then the birds, seeing them constantly, regard them less.
They are raised in confinement much more easily than the
common pheasant, the young growing with great rapidity if
well and frequently fed on custard, boiled eggs, good cheese—
all chopped fine—and mixed with bruised hemp and canary
seed. The maggots produced in flesh from the blow-fly will
tend very greatly to their rapid growth. Iam perfectly aware
that ants’ eggs are preferable, but when these are not available
maggots will be found an excellent substitute, and should be
given daily till the poults are somewhat grown. Wheat, hemp,
and barley are the best food for the old stock. It is somewhat
singular that neither variety will agree comfortably with the
common pheasants in a wood ; notwithstanding, I have seen
the hybrids produced between these birds and the common

A Hardy Bird. 231

pheasants. They are very beautiful, being of a strikingly
rich auburn, shading into every variety of gold colour; but
they were invariably unprolific, and sought every possible
opportunity to evince their pugnacity to all other birds
confined with them.

“Golden Pheasants will endure every severity of our
climate. Some years since I gave away some eggs, from which
birds were hatched and turned loose in a large plantation ;
they bred freely the ensuing year, and well stocked the pre-
serve ; the year following some withdrew to a covert at some
considerable distance, driving away the common pheasants
and taking possession of the whole. Some Golden Pheasants’
eggs, which I forwarded as a present to a friend whose pre-
serves are among the largest in the kingdom, were hatched
very early last season and the birds turned loose ; these bore all
the rigours of winter as well as any others, but in the spring
began to show a decided aversion to their fellows of more
sombre hue.”’

Mr. Hewitt further stated that the sexes in the chicks were
easily distinguished, the eyes of the cocks being light, those
of the hens deep hazel.

Golden Pheasants that have escaped to the coverts and
been shot are found when cooked to be of very delicate flavour.
These escaped birds will sometimes breed with the ordinary
species. Mr. Mayes, writing to me from Elveden, stated that
“the Golden Pheasant will cross with the common pheasant ;
we have had two or three instances of their doing so the last
two years ; but it is rare, as we have had Golden Pheasants
turned out the last ten years or more, and never knew them to
cross with any other pheasant before.”

CHAPTER XIX.

The Amherst Pheasant

(Thaumalea amherstiz).

ADY AMHERST’S Pheasant was first made known to

Europeans by two male specimens presented by the

King of Ava to Sir Archibald Campbell, and by him
given to Lady Amherst, who retained them in India for about
two years, and succeeded in bringing both alive to England,
where, however, they lived only a few weeks. These specimens
were figured and described under the title of Phasianus
amherstie by Mr. B. Leadbeater in the “ Linnean Trans-
actions ’’ for 1828. Since that time until recently no lying
specimens have been seen in Europe, and in 1863 the male
was figured in Dr. P. L. Sclater’s list of desiderata required
by the Zoological Society. The successful reintroduction of
this remarkable species is entirely owing to the combined
efforts of Mr. J. J. Stone and Mr. W. Medhurst, the British
Consul at Shanghai, who obtained twenty specimens in
Western Yunan, eight of which reached Shanghai alive, and
six—five males and one female—were successfully located
in the Zoological Gardens, Regent’s Park, in July, 1869.
Since that time other specimens have been obtained, and the
species has bred freely in confinement, and even in the open
covert.

The general appearance of the species is strikingly beau-
tiful. In the male, the irides are light, the naked skin of the
face is light blue, the feathers of the forehead are green, but the
long plumes which form the crest are crimson. The tippet,
which is so characteristic a feature of the bird, is white, each

(Thaumalea amherstiw).

PHEASANT

AMHERST

7
4

THE

é
é

Plumage. 233

feather being margined with a dark green band, and having
a second narrow band at some distance from the tip. The
front of the neck, the breast, shoulders, back, and wing coverts
are of an exquisite metallic green, each feather being tipped
with velvety black. The lower part of the breast and belly
is white, the thighs and under tail coverts mottled dark
brown and white. The feathers of the rump have the exposed
parts bright saffron yellow. The tail coverts are brown at
the base, striped green and white in the middle, and brillant
scarlet at the ends. The two upper middle tail feathers have
a light ground marked so as to resemble lace, with broad
transverse bands of green about an inch apart. The other
tail feathers have the inner webs mottled black and white,
the outer webs with curved green bars, about three-quarters
of an inch apart. The bill is pale greenish, and the feet and
legs bluish lead colour. The female closely resembles the hen
of the last species (T. picta), being a rich chestnut brown, with
bars of dark brown, which are broader than those of the
Golden Pheasant hen, and the under parts are lighter in
colour ; moreover, the bare skin of the face is pale blue like
that of the male, but much smaller. The size of this species
is somewhat larger than that of its close ally, the Golden
Pheasant. In the male the adult plumage is not assumed
until the autumn of the second year.

When Mr. Gould gave his description of this pheasant
in his “ Birds of Asia,” the male only was known, and he
wrote: “It would give me great pleasure to see a female
of this fine bird, and every ornithologist would be truly gratified
by the arrival of any information respecting the part of the
Celestial Empire in which it dwells, and any details as to its
habits. The bird would doubtless be as easily kept in our
aviaries as its near ally, the Golden Pheasant ; and it is my
ardent wish to see it thus located before I leave this lower
world for the higher and brighter one which is the end of our
hopes and desires.” Every ornithologist must feel glad that
Mr. Gould had his wish gratified.

934. The Amherst Pheasant.

Since the arrival of Mr. Stone’s specimens, Mr. Anderson,
the curator of the Indian Museum at Calcutta, has received
skins of both sexes from Yunan and Upper Burmah, where it
is not rare, the plumes being worn by the natives.

An account of the habits of this beautiful species in a wild
state occurs in a letter from the Abbé Carreau, a French
missionary in Thibet, to the Paris Acclimatization Society.
He states: “ The pheasant Houa-ze-Ixy, the Flower Pheasant
of the Chinese, always inhabits very rocky places. Whenever
I have seen this bird flying upwards, I have always been able
to shoot it ; but if it was descending, [ could not procure it,
for then it disappeared with excessive rapidity. After having
pursued it several times, [ have found it more convenient to
obtain it in the same manner as the natives, who lie in wait
for it during the winter and catch it in snares. When the
mountains are covered with snow, and the streams frozen,
the Flower Pheasants are obliged to descend to the plains for
water, but as soon as they are satisfied they ascend again.
In the paths these birds follow each other in a line: and as
they go in flocks, and the snares are few in number, the
Chinese do not make much from the plumage and flesh of this
beautiful pheasant. Ta-lin-pin is situated in the 29th degree
of latitude N. and the 102nd degree of longitude EK. : the heat
of these places is very great, as they are surrounded by high
mountains, and with very little vegetation. The mountains
are covered with brambles, briars, and thorns, and also with
grassy places ; in these spots the Amherst Pheasant is met
with in abundance. It is an error to think that, like other
pheasants, it is met with in the forests; I have never found
it there, and as in the neighbourhood of Ta-lin-pin it only
exists where there are no forests, I doubt very much if bushy
tracts are toits liking. ‘The more rocky and desolate the moun-
tains, the more certain are you to find the Flower Pheasants, in
companies composed of from twenty to thirty individuals.

“The habits and economy of the Amherst Pheasant
naturally accord with the places in which it delights; it

Ot

Habits and Breeding. 23

is an extremely wild bird. Last year I kept one of these
pheasants in a stable covered with straw ; it hid itself so fre-
quently and so well that once I was more than fifteen days
in the belief that it was dead. I fed it with bread and rice,
and it became very fat. If this bird should be introduced
into Europe, it would be useless to endeavour to make it
comfortable, if it has not in the aviary some place where,
at the least noise, it can hide itself, otherwise I doubt if it
can be preserved. I think, from the temperature of the
mountains it inhabits, that the climate of France would be
suitable for the Flower Pheasant. These particulars respecting
the Lady Ambherst’s Pheasants are perfectly exact, since I
have myself frequently hunted, captured, fed, and raised
them. They would increase easily in Europe, provided they
were not too much exposed to the heat of the sun, and that
shrubs were grown in the aviary to allow of their hiding when
frightened.”

The breeding of the Amherst Pheasant offers no difficulty,
provided it be attempted under natural conditions, and not
in the close pens and stifling hatching-houses that are charac-
teristic of some zoological collections. Not only has the pure
race been increased, but the males have also bred freely with
the hens of the Gold Pheasant (Thawmalea picta), and produced
hybrids which are of surpassing beauty. At the sale of the
surplus stock in the Zoological Gardens at Antwerp in 1872,
a single male hybrid of this kind, in full plumage, realised
351. The cross-bred specimens combine in a remarkable
degree the most attractive features of the two species from
which they are derived, and are unquestionably far more
beautiful than either; compared with them the pure-bred
Amherst looks pallid, and the Gold Pheasant wants the beau-
tiful contrast of the white neck tippet and the brilliancy of the
green and blue.

The crest is fully developed, being larger than in either
parent species ; in colour it is a brilliant scarlet orange. The
neck tippet 1s white, margined with brilliant dark green,

236 The Amherst Pheasant.

resembling that of the Amherst, but considerably more
developed. The iris, which is white in the latter species, is of
a pale straw colour in the hybrids, as is the naked skin under
the eye. The neck under the tippet, as well as the throat,
is a resplendent green. The breast, which in the Amherst is
white, is a brilliant scarlet orange, with a narrow transverse
band of lighter yellow about an inch below the margin of the
green feathers of the throat. The flanks are of the same
colour as the breast. The back is yellow, running into the
bright scarlet orange of the tail coverts and side sickle feathers..
The wing coverts are of a magnificent dark steel blue. In
all the characters mentioned, the hybrids possess the most:
gorgeous hues of the two species conjoined. The tail, however,
is an exception ; that of the Amherst is certainly more beautiful.
than that of the Gold, which latter, however, appears almost.
unchanged in the cross-breeds, but of somewhat increased
size. As, however, in the so-called species Thaumalea obscura,.
the tail of the Gold tends to vary towards the markings of
that of the Amherst, and the upper part of the throat to
assume a spangled character, there would be no difficulty in
breeding this cross with the Amherst tail. The cross-breeds.
are remarkably tame, feeding readily out of the hand.

Mr. Elliot, in his monograph of the Phasianide, gives a
life-sized coloured plate of this hybrid, and acknowledges
that “‘in size and briliancy of dress he eclipses’ both the
parent species, adding: “ Contrary to my intention of not.
figuring any hybrid pheasants, I have been induced to show
this one, merely from its great beauty and the comparative
rarity of at least one of its parents ; but at the same time I
cannot but believe that all those who breed pheasants, either
for pleasure or profit, would best consult their own interests
hy keeping their birds as pure in blood as possible, allowing
no foreign strain to intermingle, and resolutely setting their
faces against even such a magnificent impostor as here offers
himself for our admiration.” I quote this passage as illustra-
tive of the beauty of the birds, although I differ entirely from

What is a Species? 237

the conclusions arrived at by the writer. There can be no
possible doubt of the perfect fertility of the half-bred
Amhersts. Mated with the pure Amherst, three-quarter pure-
bred birds are the result ; these show very little trace of the
Golden species. The half-bred Gold and Amherst are equally
fertile when mated with one another, and an intermediate
breed may be perpetuated, which possesses the united beauties
of both parent species, and be perfectly permanent in its
characters.

The perpetuation of permanent races produced by the
union of two perfectly distinct species is well known to all
who do not wilfully shut their eyes to those facts which do
not square with their theories. The late Mr. E. Blyth, a most
accurate observer, and whose knowledge of species was unsur-
passed, informed me that over a large extent of India no other
domestic goose is known except the cross between the Chinese
species (Anser cygnoides), and the domesticated variety of the
grey-lag goose (Anser ferus).

In the case of the true pheasants, P. colchicus, P. torquatus,
and P. versicolor, every variety of interbreeding takes place,
and the intermediate forms can be perpetuated as may be
desired ; or, as was originally the case with the P. versicolor
in this country, the pure breed can be established from a
single individual.

Most naturalists maintain that these three pheasants are
perfectly good species; but what is the test of a species ?
For my own part, I am sufficiently heterodox in my belief to
_regard all the true restricted pheasants, such as P. colchicus,
rersicolor, torquatus, shawii, mongolicus, elegans, &c., as mere
geographical variations of one type, capable of breeding
together and perpetuating any cross that it may please
experimenters to produce; and in the same manner the two
species of the genus Thawmalea, namely, the Gold and
Amherst pheasants, may be regarded as geographical races
capable of yielding a permanent race intermediate between
the two.

238 The Amherst Pheasant.

These views, which I maintained at the time of the publica-
tion of the first edition of this work in 1873, have been fully
borne out by later experience. In 1881 the late Mr. A. D.
Bartlett, then superintendent of the Zoological Gardens, wrote
to me: “ The hybrid Amherst and Gold pheasants breed freely
inter se ; but, as far as I can learn, in most cases the breeders
have been breeding the half-bred hens with the pure Amherst
males, for the purpose of obtaining as near as possible the
characters of the pure Amherst; and this is very quickly
accomplished, for in the third generation all traces of the
Gold pheasant are lost, or nearly so.”

The late Mr. Horne, writing to me in 1879, said: “‘ With
regard to the Gold and Amherst pheasants being turned out
by landed proprietors, I know of a place in Ireland where
there are large numbers of these birds breeding together in
a wild state, and some of the crosses are very beautiful.
There is also an estate in Scotland where Amhersts have been
at liberty for years, and the owner wrote me that they kept
their own quarters, not allowing the other pheasants to inter-
fere with them. I agree with you that it is a pity more of
these birds are not turned out, as they form a great attraction
to pleasure grounds. The easiest way to bring it about is
to place a brood or two under hens in the kitchen garden ;
and, as they become fully grown, they naturally fly to the
adjoining trees, and continue to hang about the place after-
wards.”

‘(snuowayzohu smunoojdng) INVSVAHd ATHATIS AA

CHAPTER XX.

The Silver Pheasant (Luplocamus nycthemerus)
and Allied Species.

NDER the name of Huplocamus nycthemerus the Silver
Pheasant has been known to naturalists since the time
of Linneus. In the earlier works on natural history,
such as that of Albin, published in 1738, and Edwards, in 1751,
it was termed the Black and White Chinese pheasant, which
name was employed by Buffon ; it was also termed the Pen-
cilled and Lineated Pheasant, and by. Temminck Faisan bicolor.

Its native locality was first definitely ascertained by
Consul Swinhoe, who informs us that it inhabits the wooded
hills in the interior of southern China. Writing to Mr. Elhot,
he states: “This bird is known to the Chinese as the Pih
Heen, and it is one of those which are embroidered upon the
heart-and-back badges of the official dresses of the civil
Mandarins to denote the rank of the wearers. So far as I
have ascertained, it is found in the wooded mountains of the
following provinces : Fokien, Canton, Kwangse, and Kweichou.
It is brought to Canton city from the province of Kwangse
by the west river, and offered alive in the shops for sale. All
the birds I have seen so offered have been captured. I do
not think the Chinese had the bird in confinement. A friend
of mine shot one in some woods, in the mountains about 100
miles from Amoy (Province Fokien), but I have never met
with the species in my rambles.”

In his “‘ Handbook to the Game Birds,” 1895, Mr. W.
Ogilvie-Grant writes: ‘‘ According to the Abbé David the
Silver Pheasant is becoming very rare in a wild state, and is
only found in South China, towards the north of Fokien, and

94.0 The Silver Pheasant.

perhaps in Chekiang. He says that most of the Golden and
Silver pheasants that one sees at Shanghai come from Japan,
where these two Chinese species are reared in captivity. The
Silver Pheasant is known in China by the names of Ing-ky
(Silver Fowl) and Paé-ky (White Fowl). Very little indeed
is known of the habits of this extremely fine species in a wild
state, though it has long been one of the commonest aviary
birds. The males are, unfortunately, so extremely pugnacious
and such big heavy birds that they fight with, and often kill,
any other male pheasant living in the same aviary, and for
this reason must be kept separate.”’

From their large size, commanding appearance, and the
beauty of the markings, Silver Pheasants have long been
favourites in our aviaries. They have the additional recom-
mendation of being exceedingly hardy, of laying freely in
captivity, and of being easy to rear when young. ‘They also
become perfectly tame, feeding freely from the hand. These
birds could be readily domesticated, if it were thought desirable
to do so. I have known several instances where they have
been allowed to run at full liberty, and have seen the birds
sufficiently tame to come and stand before a window, waiting
for their accustomed treat at the hands of the members of
the family. The hens, though not usually allowed to do so,
will readily hatch their own eggs, and attend upon their
chickens with all the care of common fowls. Some years
ago I saw a pair belonging to Mr. Clarence Bartlett, in a
moderate-sized aviary, the hen of which had laid, hatched,
and was rearing a strong, healthy brood of young, the cock
being active in defence of his family, and attacking most
viciously any person going into the inclosure. No game
cock could be more determined or courageous in his behaviour ;
and the sharp spurs with which this species is armed render
his assault a thing to be avoided, as he would fly at the face
of the intruder on his domain.

Silver Pheasants can be easily domesticated and reared
among the other denizens of the poultry yard, but in such

An Undesirable Neighbour. 241

circumstances they generally escape into the coverts and
become wild, under which conditions they breed freely. They
are not, however, desirable additions, either to our limited
stock of game birds, or, though exceedingly ornamental, to
our very restricted number of domestic poultry, inasmuch as
they are exceedingly pugnacious, driving away all the true
pheasants from the preserves, fighting with the fowls, killing
the young chickens in the poultry yard, and not hesitating
to attack dogs, children, and even grown-up persons during
the breeding season. When wild they are flushed with
difficulty, and on the wing they have been rightly charac-
terised as being most unsatisfactory from a sporting point of
view, flying dangerously low, in a horizontal direction, and but
a few feet from the ground.

With regard to their edible qualities I can speak very
positively, as I have had specimens that have been shot in
the coverts cooked like pheasants, and found them destitute
of the flavour of game, and altogether of very inferior quality.
The flesh was white and, although the birds had been well
hung, exceedingly firm.

A correspondent informs me that he has “ reared several
Silver Pheasants in confinement, and has turned them out
about the grounds. ‘The males are exceedingly tame, but also
exceedingly dangerous. Last year I had a lovely specimen,
which used to feed at the window of the breakfast-room with
the peafowl and other birds, and even knock at the glass and
make its way into the room. But in the spring, when hatching
was going on, he attacked ladies and children in the most
determined manner, always flying at the face. He would
dodge people walking, and make his appearance from under
the bushes in a very unexpected manner. On one occasion
he knocked a lady down, and on another occasion entered the
drawing-room and attacked a lady who was sitting there.”

Another writer says: “ I have for many years had a score
of them running loose with the poultry—two cocks, one an old
one, the other a young one of last year, just getting into full

R

942 The Silver Pheasant.

plumage ; the others are hens. In bad weather and in winter
they roost in the poultry house, at other times in the trees.
The males are most pugnacious and jealous, fighting and
bullying the fowls—so much so that I am obliged to have
their spurs cut off—and the hens very spiteful to young
poultry. The others I have shut up, otherwise they would
fight until they killed each other. In the breeding time
they are shut up in large pens.

‘““T have frequently had the hens sit on and hatch their
eges ; when they have young ones, if anyone goes near them
they act like partridges. I have seen them charge dogs and
drive them away. I have also seen a cock watching a fox
stalking him, and when the fox made his rush the bird flew
over him, but lost his tail. To show how severely they can
make these spurs tell, one of my keepers kicked at an old
- Silver cock pheasant to drive him away, when the bird turned
on him and sent his spur night through his boot. They are
quite as bad as peafowls in a kitchen garden; they will eat
all the fruit. They are not very good birds for the table,
but they are useful as being eatable in February and March.”

The Silver Pheasant is a long-lived bird, even in confine-
ment. Mr. Thompson, in his “ Natural History of Ireland,”
states that he has known one live twenty-one or twenty-two
years In captivity.

The male, without possessing the gorgeous coloration of
many of the Phasianide, is a very beautiful bird. The face
is entirely covered with a bright vermilion skin, which during
the spring becomes excessively brilhant, and is greatly increased
in size, so as to almost resemble the comb and wattles of a
cock; the flowing crest is blue-black, the bill hght green.
The upper part of the body is white, pencilled with the most
delicate tracery of black. The whole of the under parts are
bluish-black, the legs and feet red, the spurs well developed
and usually very sharp. The female is smaller than the male ;
her general colour is brown, mottled with a darker tint ; the
crest and tail are much less ample than those of the cock ;

The Kaleege. 243

the outer tail feathers are light, marked with black on
outer webs. The female in confinement usually lays from
eight to fourteen eggs, and the young are most easily reared
under a common fowl.

The genus Huplocamus, to which the Silver Pheasant
belongs, includes several species. They are distinguished
from the true pheasants by the crest, and by the more fowl-
like form of the tail. ‘The males (and sometimes even the
females) are strongly and sharply spurred. The common
species, the kaleege or kalij of India, breed very freely, even
in confinement, but are not adapted for turning into the
covert, as they rise with difficulty, and their flesh is not equal
for culinary purposes to that of the ordinary pheasant. A
correspondent writes: “‘I have been shooting lately in pre-
serves where, amongst other game, I had the pleasure of
seeing the kaleege on the wing. The birds had been bred
under hens from eggs taken from old birds in a mew, treated
in the same manner as pheasants, and were at this time—the
last week in December—practically as wild as the pheasants
in the same coverts. A more unsporting-looking bird on the
wing | never met with, or a more unsatisfactory one to knock
down. Its flight is low, never rising more than eight or ten
feet from the ground, and therefore in a line with everybody’s
head, consequently a most dangerous bird in a battue. Its
flight is more like that of a coot or moorhen than any bird I
know, the slow, noiseless flight and the dark plumage making
it very like the former bird. It runs much before rising—
is very savage, driving away the other game birds, and is the
most unsatisfactory game bird I ever saw. My friend with
whom I was shooting is therefore killing them down.”

Twelve different species of kaleege have at various times
been shown in the Zoological Gardens, Regent’s Park. Of
these the greater number have bred either with their own
species or have produced hybrids with other Euplocami.
Amongst those that breed the most freely may be mentioned
Swinhoe’s pheasant (H. swinhow), the purple kaleege (EF.

R 2

244 The Silver Pheasant.

horsfieldi), the black-backed kaleege (H. melanotus), and the
white-crested (HE. albo-cristatus). The different species of
Fuplocamus interbreed freely even in a wild state, and there
is no difficulty in rearing a very large series of hybrids in
captivity.

=

“(Mnainyounu woprgdosson9) TNVSVYAHA GAANVA WH,

CHAPTER XXI.

The Eared Pheasant

(Crossoptilon manchuricum).

Pheasants, constituting the genus Crossoptilon, five

species are known, though only two, the Manchurian
(C. manchuricum) and the white Tibet species (C. tibetanum),
have been received in Europe mm a living state.

The Eared Pheasants differ in many very essential particu-
lars from the more common species. Both sexes are alike
in plumage, and are only to be distinguished by the presence
of spurs on the legs of the males. The large size and peculiar
character of the tail coverts separate them from any allied
group. ‘The first specimens seen alive were presented to the
Zoological Society by Mr. Dudley E. Saurin in 1866 ; since that
time others have been imported, and a considerable number
have been bred in this country and on the Continent.

The Manchurian Eared Pheasant is more remarkable for
the singular arrangement of its plumage than for briliancy
of colouring, in this latter respect not approaching the
gorgeous hues of the true pheasants, or many of the closely-
allied birds. The general colour of the body is a sombre
brown ; the true tail feathers are white, with dark tips ; but
the bird derives its remarkable appearance from its large
size and the peculiar character of the tail coverts, which spring
from the lower part of the back, and in great part obscure
the true tail. These tail coverts are white, and have the
barbs separated, so that they form an elegant appendage to
the body. The legs and feet of the Eared Pheasant are red
in colour, and of true scratching or rasorial type, the claws
being bluntly curved, lke those of the common fowl. The

(): the remarkable group of birds known as the Eared

246 The Eared Pheasant.

head is very striking in its general appearance ; the vaulted
beak is of a pale fleshy white, contrasting strongly with the
red skin of the face, which again is thrown into prominence
by the white feathers that constitute the so-called ears of the
bird.

Consul Swinhoe wrote : “ This bird is found in the hills
north of Pekin, in Manchuria, and brought in winter to Pekin
in large numbers, both alive and dead. It is called by the
natives the Ho-ke. The feathers of this bird were formerly
worn by Tartar warriors. I have not seen the species in its
wild state.”

Pere David informs us that these birds frequent the woods
of high mountains, and that they subsist much more upon
green vegetables, leaves of trees, and succulent roots than
upon grain. In their habits they are more gregarious than the
common pheasants, assembling together in flocks of consider-
able size. In domestication they become exceedingly tame,
feeding readily from the hand. When at large they appear
remarkably hardy ; they breed when only one year old, and
acquire their adult plumage at the first autumnal moult.

They possess the very rare instinct of domestication. I
have seen specimens at Mr. Stone’s residence in the Welsh
hills as familiar as barn-door fowls. In the closely-confined
pens in our Zoological Gardens their increase has not been
very rapid, but they have proved themselves as hardy and prolific.
as common turkeys would have been if placed under similar
disadvantageous conditions. Mr. Bartlett writes: “ Of the
Crossoptilon we have reared nine fine birds the second hatch,
having lost by the gapes the first brood of seven.”’

By placing a young brood in a large walled-in garden,
where they could obtain abundance of fresh vegetables and
insect food, they should offer no more difficulty in rearing
than barn-door fowls ; all they would require would be custard
and lettuce in addition to ants’ eggs, if obtainable; but fed
on dry hard corn, and kept in small aviaries with brick floors,
success is not to be expected.

Allied Species. 247

Of the allied species, Hodgson’s Crossoptilon (C. tubetanum),
three specimens were living in the Zoological Gardens in 1891.
In this the general colour is bluish-white, but the crown of
the head is black, the wings dark, and the tail black crossed
with green and blue. It is a native of Tibet.

Under the name of C. drouyni, a species very closely allied,
if, indeed, it be not identical with the last, has been described
and named by M. Verraux, and figured in Elliot’s Monograph
of the Phasianide.

The original Eared Pheasant described by Pallas was a
slaty-blue species. Pallas’s specimens have long been lost,
but some years ago, owing to the indefatigable exertions of
Pere David, skins were received at the Museum at Paris,
and the original C. auritum is now known to be perfectly
distinct from the Manchurian species, with which we are
most familiar in the living state.

ax vo)
Le

CHAPTER XXII.

The Impeyan Pheasant
(Lophophorus Impeyanus).

gorgeous birds; the wonderful metallic brilliance of

its plumage, ‘‘ gleaming in purple and gold,” never
fails to attract the attention of the spectator. In the Zoo-
logical Gardens it has bred frequently, but a native of the
Himalayas, seldom descending far below the snow-line, and
suffering from the heat of summer, is not likely to succeed
on the London clay. During the life of my friend, Mr. J. J.
Stone, I saw at large on the Welsh hills Impeyan Pheasants
as tame as the other poultry, and I have little doubt but that
in suitable localities, as in the North of Scotland, this magni-
ficent bird might be introduced to advantage either as a
domestic or wild bird.

Should it be thought desirable to try the experiment in
any appropriate locality, this can only be done by a considera-
tion of their habits in a wild state, and I have therefore great
pleasure in quoting the following from the late Colonel Tickell,
who was well acquainted with the birds in their natural
haunts :

“The Monaul ranges high in the mountains where it is
found, keeping near the line of snow ; and although met with
in the ridges next the plains, becomes much more numerous
farther in the mountains. It frequents the entire range of
the Himalayas, from Afghanistan to Sikhim. Its range in
elevation varies according to season, but in the severest winter
it does not appear to descend below 6000 feet above sea level.
I have seen numbers in Nepal in winter, brought with other

[Le Monaul, or Impeyan Pheasant, is one of the most

‘(snuphadunr snwoydoydo'T ) INVSVOHHd NVAGdMWI AHL

In its Native Forests. 249

kinds of pheasants by the Botias for sale in the plains of
India, where they soon perish when the hot weather begins.

“ They are forest birds, and difficult to be found in summer
when vegetation is profuse, unless by ascending to the highest
hmits of the forest, when shots may be obtained in the open
downs above, and amongst the rocks and thin herbage near the
snow. In autumn, as the underwood decays, they descend
and scatter through the woods, sometimes in great numbers,
and seek lower levels as the winter advances and the soil
becomes frozen. At such times they draw near to the small
villages, perched on the lower spurs and above the sheltered
valleys, and seek their food in the fields, where the moun-
taineers with their large hoes have dug up the soil. In these
seasonal migrations it has been remarked that the females and
young birds descend lowest and approach nearest to human
habitations.

“ They appear to be either capricious in their rambles
through the woods, or are attracted to particular spots at
particular times for reasons not apparent. Sometimes the
sportsman will put up in one part of the forest fifteen or
twenty in the space of four or five acres. In another portion
he may keep on flushing for the rest of the day single birds,
feeding in solitude, far apart. At no time are they gregarious,
and whenever alarmed they rise and escape independently of
each other. In some parts only cock birds are found, in others
only hens.

“ Severity of cold and scarceness of food have their taming
effect on the Monaul, as on other birds, and the lower the snow
the easier the task of making a bag. When on the wing, it
generally flies a long way, and if much alarmed crosses over
to a parallel ridge. Occasionally, however, it will settle on
the low limb of a tree, at no great distance, and once there,
it is, ike many other gallinaceous birds, easy of access.

“Sometimes when approached in open spots it walks off,
or begins to run, stopping often and eyeing the intruder, till
suddenly, and without apparent immediate cause, it will rise

250 The Impeyan Pheasant.

with a startling flapping or flutter of the wings, scattering the
dead leaves in a shower around, and fly headlong into the
wood with a succession of short, piercing, shrieking whistles,
which appear to act as a warning to some distant companions,
for their calls are often heard in reply. When feeding quietly
and in security the Monaul has a sweet, mellow call—a long
plaintive note—which it utters from time to time, especially
of a morning and after sunset. It has the same melancholy
effect on the ear as the creaking whistle of the curlew winging
his way along the mudflats as evening settles over the lonely
shore. The call has a rather melancholy sound, or it may
be that as the shades of a dreary winter’s evening begin to close
on the snow-covered hills around, the cold and cheerless aspect
of Nature, with which it seems quite in unison, makes it
appear so.

“The Monaul breeds towards the end of spring. The
courtship is carried on in the chestnut and large timber forests
before the birds ascend, during the summer heats, towards
the regions of perpetual snow. It is generally near the upper
limits of these forests, where the trees are dwarfed and sparingly
scattered, that the hen lays and incubates three to five eggs,
in a depression on the ground. The eggs are of a dull cream
or pale buff colour, sprinkled with reddish brown. Like most
gallinaceous birds, the Monaul may be said to be omnivorous.
Those I have had in confinement ate rice and grain readily,
as well as insects, worms, maggots, flesh, lizards, fish, eggs, &e.
It is a diligent digger, and the slightly expanded tip of the
mandible acts like a hoe or shovel. I had several of these
birds in an aviary at Mullye, in Tirhoot. They were strong
and vigorous as long as the cold weather lasted, and soon
beeame tame, and did not succumb to the atmosphere of the
plains till June, when the rains had set in. Unlike the smaller
hill pheasants, they were not pugnacious. If shipped off early
in the cold weather from Calcutta, these birds could easily
enough be transported to England, where the temperature
would suit them, if there were any means of giving them shelter

Plumage. 251

during the extreme severity of winter, or of procuring for them
in that season a proper substitute for the insect food which
never fails them on the lower elevations of the Himalayas. If
they could become as thoroughly acclimatised as the common
pheasant, they would indeed be a superb ornament to our
parks and plantations, though perhaps no great acquisition
to the table. It is many years ago since I tasted the Monaul,
and, speaking from memory, the flavour appeared to me much
the same as that of peafowl, the breast being tender and
palatable in the young birds, but no part being fit for anything
but soup in old specimens. The Monaul has bred in England,
both in the Zoological Gardens of London and in the possession
of the Earl of Derby, where the female is said to have laid on
one occasion thirteen or fourteen eggs.”

In appropriate localities there should be little difficulty in
rearing the young, which should be amply supplied witb
custard and ants’ eggs, in preference to much grain, and the
fowl rearing them should be allowed as much freedom as
possible, in order that she may supply the young chicks with
appropriate insect food.

The following is the description of the two sexes and young :
“The bill of the male is dusky brown or horny ; iris sombre
brown ; legs greenish lead colour ; naked orbits; small blue
head; crest and throat green, and highly metallic; the
lanceolate feathers on the hind neck amethystine or bright
purple, changing in lights into cupreous green with a golden
glance ; middle of the back white ; but all the rest of the upper
parts, including the upper tail coverts, rich blue, glancing
with green and purple, highly glossed, the purple predominating
on the back and rump, the green on the wing and tail coverts ;
remiges plain black; tail pale rust colour; all under parts
black, and without gloss. The female is entirely cinnamon
brown ; the feathers shafted pale, and irregularly barred and
marked sepia; primaries blackish; chin and throat white.
Entire length of the male, about 24 inches ; wing, 11 ; tail, 73.
The female is a little smaller. The young males are at first

252 The Impeyan Pheasant.

like the female, but may be distinguished by the black spots
on the chin and throat. They assume the adult plumage
gradually, and in irregular patches scattered over the body.”
Mr. W. Ogilvie-Grant, in his ““ Handbook to the Game
Birds,” asserts that Gould was in error in calling the common
Monaul the Impeyan Pheasant, L. impeyanus, a name which
should be applied to another species—the Chamba Monaul.
It is to be regretted that the name under which one species
has been so long known should be transferred to another in
scientific catalogues. There is no doubt whatever that under
the name of Impeyan Pheasant the Monaul will long be recog-
nised, as little or nothing is known of the Chamba species,
the female being entirely unknown. In addition to this species
other Monauls are described by Mr. Ogilvie-Grant, one named
after De lHuys from West China, and another after Dr. P. L.
Sclater, and he also alludes to two varieties of the Common
Monaul, which have likewise been unnecessarily named as sub-

species.

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ARGUS PHEASANT (Argus giganteus).

CHAPTER XXIII.

The Argus Pheasant
(Argus giganteus).

HE Argus Pheasant, as it was termed by Linneus, is
undoubtedly one of the most magnificent of the family
of pheasants. Its native haunts are the forests of
Malacca and Siam, the Malay Peninsula, and Southern Tenas-
serim ; itis also found in Sumatra. It is so extremely shy in its
habits that it is rarely, if ever, shot, even by native hunters,
who nevertheless manage to secure numbers by snaring the
birds.

Dr. A. R. Wallace, in his most interesting work on the
Malay Archipelago, describes his journey into the heart of
the Argus country, and writing of Mount Ophir, fifty miles
eastward of Malacca, states :

“The place where we first encamped, at the foot of the
mountain, being very gloomy, we chose another in a kind
of swamp, near a stream overgrown with zingiberaceous
plants, in which a clearing was easily made. Here our men
built two httle huts without sides, that would just shelter
us from the rain, and we lived in them for a week, shooting
and insect-hunting, and roaming about the forest at the foot
of the mountain. This was the country of the great Argus
Pheasant, and we continually heard its cry. On asking the
old Malay to try and shoot one for me, he told me that, though
he had been twenty years shooting birds in these forests, he
had never yet shot one, and had never seen one except after
it had been caught. The bird is so exceedingly shy and wary,
and runs along the ground in the densest parts of the forest
so quickly, that it is impossible to get near it ; and its sober

254 The Argus Pheasant.

colours and rich eye-like spots, which are so ornamental
when seen in a museum, must harmonise well with the dead
leaves among which it dwells, and render it very inconspicuous.
All the specimens sold in Malacca are caught in snares, and
my informant, though he had shot none, had snared plenty.”

The great peculiarity of the birds of this genus is that the
secondary flight feathers of the wings are excessively enlarged
and lengthened, being in the males double the length of the
primaries, and covered on the outer webs with the singular
ocellated spots from whence the bird derives its name. In
the male, also, the two central tail feathers are extremely
elongated, and project in a very singular manner beyond the
others.

For many years Argus giganteus was the only known
species in the genus; but another smaller Argus (A. grayi)
is now known by specimens in the British Museum from
Borneo; there is also A. ocellatus from the Highlands of
Tonquin, and the existence of one or two others is suspected
from specimens of feathers differing from those of the known
species.

The great Argus is over five feet in length, the tail being
three feet eight inches long. The prevailing colour of the
plumage is ochreous red or brown, unrelieved by any lively
or brilliant shade. The tints are distributed with so much
harmony, and covered with such a profusion of small spots
or even points, sometimes darker and sometimes lighter than
the ground, that they produce the most agreeable effect.
Its long and broad secondary feathers are covered in their
entire length by a row of large eye-like spots, closely imitating
half globes ; the colour of these, as that of the plumage, has,
however, something resembling ancient bronze. The primary
feathers, with whitish external barbs, speckled with brown,
and with inner barbs of the colour of a fallow deer, dotted
with white, have their shafts of the most beautiful sky blue.
The naked skin of the face and neck is bright blue, and
contrasts well with the bronze hue of the plumage. The female

Plumage. 255

neither exhibits the extraordinary development of the tail
and wings nor the eye-like spots of the male. Her plumage
is darker, and the total length is only twenty-six inches.

The two specimens (a male and a female) figured in the
engraving had been living some few years in the Zoological
Gardens in the Regent’s Park when the first edition of this
work was published, at which time only five specimens of the
Argus had been seen alive in Europe ; since then it has been
more frequently imported, and many adult specimens have
been received in the Zoological Gardens, and several young
have been bred there. In addition to those in the Regent’s
Park, others have lived in the possession of the King of Italy
and in the Zoological Gardens at Amsterdam. It is singular
that the Argus, although so exceedingly shy when wild,
becomes perfectly tame in captivity, returning to its aviary
when allowed to escape, as related by Lieut. Kilham in the
Ibis for 1881.

The ornamentation of the secondary wing feathers in the
male Argus is one of the most wonderful in the whole animal
kingdom ; the ornamental marks are usually termed ocelli
or eyes, but they much more closely resemble ball and socket
ornaments. As these ocelli are not visible when the wing is
closed, the mode in which they were displayed has hitherto
rather been conjectured than described, and even in recent
works the bird has been portrayed displaying its plumage in
a perfectly unnatural manner.

Fortunately, however, the pair of Argus pheasants formerly
in the Zoological Gardens, Regent’s Park, were closely watched
for some days in succession by the late Mr. T. W. Wood,
who had several opportunities of seeing the male bird display
the magnificence of its plumage, and made a drawing of it at
the time. At my request he kindly favoured me with the
following particulars :—

“Tt is with great pleasure that I comply with your
request to give you a description of the mode of display of
the Argus. The male bird commences by running about

256 The Argus Pheasant.

very briskly, bending his neck, and seeming to look at the
female ‘ out of the corner of his eye’; he is evidently at this
time in a very playful mood: he elevates his wings (while
still closed) and shakes them. Suddenly, when close to the
female, he throws his wings forward, the primaries resting
on the ground, the secondaries extending upwards, and the
tertials having their upper surfaces pressed together. At
this time slight rustling sounds are heard, which I have no
doubt are produced chiefly by the movements of the side
feathers of the tail as they are alternately moved outwards
and inwards ; the large feathers of the wings are also slightly
waved, and moved at regular intervals downwards towards
the female. But the most remarkable circumstance is that the
bird places his head behind, or under one wing, so that in front
there is nothing to intercept the view of the observer of his
plumage. With the head so placed, how is he to observe his
‘ladye love,’ which, one would think, he must very strongly
desire to do? My idea was that, by lowering his head a little,
he could peep between his wings ; but Mr. A. D. Bartlett has
told me that he has seen the head thrust through the wing
feathers, and Mr. C. Bartlett suspected this on finding some
secondary feathers of a specimen which he set up disordered
at their bases. I have drawn the head in the position in which
it has been placed when I have seen the bird display, and not
as described by Mr. Bartlett, although not for one moment
doubting the accuracy of such a keen observer, and I am sure
I shall be excused for representing only what I have seen,
especially as that is sufficiently curious. When I have noticed
the head, it has been placed under the right wing ; but I should
not think this is invariably the case. You are aware that
I have previously called attention to the very artistic shading
of the large round spots on the secondaries, and my opinion
that the bird during display would so place his wings that all
the lights on these spots would be upwards or towards the
source of light, and the shades downwards, has been confirmed
by observation of the living bird.”

Its Display in Courtship. 257

From my own observation I can fully confirm the state-
ment of Mr. Wood, namely, that the ocelli are so shaded as
to represent the light coming from above when the wings are
expanded as the bird is displaying itself. In the engraving
the ocelli of the secondary feathers nearest the tail have the
light side shown nearest the top of the feather, whereas on
the first and second secondaries, those which are held nearest
the ground and most horizontally, the light is next the shaft
of the feather.

The mode in which these ocelli have been produced has
been the subject of a very elaborate and ingenious disquisition
by Darwin (“ Descent of Man,” vol. u., p. 141), to which I
would refer those of my readers who desire to enter more
deeply into the subject; but the following remarks on the
characteristics of the feathers and their employment by the
male are so graphic that I need make no apology for quoting
them (vol. i., p. 91) :—

‘““ The immensely developed secondary wing feathers, which
are confined to the male, are ornamented with a row of from
twenty to twenty-three ocelli, each above an inch in diameter.
The feathers are also elegantly marked with oblique dark stripes
and rows of spots, like those on the skin of a tiger and leopard
combined. The ocelli are so beautifully shaded that they
stand out like a ball lying loosely within a socket. But when
I looked at the specimen in the British Museum, which is
mounted with the wings expanded and trailing downwards,
I was greatly disappointed, for the ocelli appeared flat or even
concave. Mr. Gould, however, soon made the case clear
to me, for he had made a drawing of a male whilst he was
displaying himself. At such times the long secondary feathers
in both wings are vertically erected and expanded, and these,
together with the enormously elongated tail feathers, made a
grand semicircular upright fan. Now as soon as the wing
feathers are held in this position, and the light shines on them
from above, the full effect of the shading comes out, and each

ocellus at once resembles the ornament called a_ball-and-
S

258 The Argus Pheasant.

socket. These feathers have been shown to several artists,
and all have expressed their admiration at the perfect shading.

“The primary wing feathers, which in most gallinaceous
birds are uniformly coloured, are in the Argus pheasant not
less wonderful objects than the secondary wing feathers,
they are of a soft brown tint with numerous dark spots, each
of which consists of two or three black dots with a surrounding
dark zone. But the chief ornament is a space parallel to the
dark blue shaft, which in outline forms a perfect second
feather lying within the true feather. This inner part is
coloured of a lighter chestnut, and is thickly dotted with minute
white points. I have shown this feather to several persons,
and many have admired it even more than the ball-and-
socket feathers, and have declared that it was more like a
work of art than of Nature. Now these feathers are quite
hidden on all ordinary occasions, but are fully displayed when
the long secondary feathers are erected, though in a widely
different manner; for they are expanded in front lke two
little fans or shields, one on each side of the breast near the
ground.

“The case of the male Argus pheasant is eminently
interesting, because it affords good evidence that the most
refined beauty may serve as a charm for the female, and
for no other purpose. We must conclude that this is the
case, as the primary wing feathers are never displayed, and
the ball-and-socket ornaments are not exhibited in full
perfection except when the male assumes the attitude of
courtship. The Argus pheasant does not possess brilliant
colours, so that his success in courtship appears to have
depended on the great size of his plumes, and on the elabora-
tion of the most elegant patterns. Many will declare that it
is utterly incredible that a female bird should be able to appre-
ciate fine shading and exquisite patterns. It is undoubtedly
a marvellous fact that she should possess this almost human
degree of taste, though perhaps she admires the general effect
rather than each separate detail. He who thinks that he can

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Purpose in Beauty. 259

safely gauge the discrimination and taste of the lower animals
may deny that the female Argus pheasant can appreciate
such refined beauty ; but he will then be compelled to admit
that the extraordinary attitudes assumed by the male during
the act of courtship, by which the wonderful beauty of his
plumage is fully displayed, are purposeless; and this is a
conclusion which I for one will never admit.”

The illustration, by the late Mr. T. W. Wood, speaks for
itself ; its accuracy of detail is remarkable, and I have much
pleasure in having been accessory to the publication of the
first correct delineation of the display of the Argus pheasant
that has been produced.

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Index.

Acorns, excess of, injurious in confinement. .
Agriculture, value of pheasants to
Air, distention by.

fen guns

Albania, wild meant in
America, North, the pheasant in
Amherst pheasant

Ants’ eggs

Argus pheasant

Artichokes as food

Aviaries, ornamental

Barnes, J., on feeding in coverts
Barren hens .. : :
a » assuming faalsy even

Bartlett, A. D., on rearing young aheasantey
* ,, on the transport of pheasants

Baskets for transporting pheasants ..
Black-throated Golden pheasant
Blyth on the fertility of hybrids

» on the eall-note of Reeves’s plese
Bohemian pheasants
Bones, crushed, use of
Brailing pheasants for transport

Carr-Ellison, R., on formation of coverts

Cassin, John, on Scemmerring’s pheasant

Cats destructive to pheasants

Chinese pheasant ..

Coccidiosis —

Cock pheasants ie ne rearing young
= ae kiling down

120,

159
123

224
237
198
173
84
98

45
216
76
176
148
18
68

962 Index.

Coops for young pheasants cu» is Sea page 126
» elevated : Bike Pee 134
Corsica, wild pheasant in 44
Cost of rearing : 135
Courtship, display of ainniage iene 18
Coverts, formation of . 45
ss taking birds to Af 134
Crook, F., on pens for pheasantries .. 1m
Cross- bred pheasants in coverts 169, 191
Be Golden and Avnet 236

Onsphe manchuricum : bi 245
. tibetanum, ces ne cuit 247
Crowing .: .. 55 18
Crows destructive i young pheasants vel
Darwin on cross-bred Scemmerring . 219
» on display of Argus nhonaart Aree i)
Dawkins, Prof. Boyd, on introduction into Bgl 28
Digestive organs of the pheasant 8
Diseases of pheasants . MPT ee
Disinfection of ground and pens .. .. .. 142, 144, 149
Distribution 34
Domestication, pheasanibe niet nine of 24
Eared pheasant 3 on.) Ae
Egg-eating by pheasants 84, 101
Kge testers a 3) las
Eggs, number laid in a aenerment 89, 103
», purchasing A 2 iy eee dat
EBlhot, Mr. D. G., on peeaatited (ata and Amherst 236
r y Monograph on the Phasianide 1
Elsenham, methods of preservation at 106
Enteritis in pheasants 146
Kuplocamus nycthemerus 239
Favus... =: : 155
Feeding iano objocianelils : 57

Index. 263

Female plumage, assumption of, by male .. .. page 160
Peectiiseiopmensants( jes. fs. |S. let Be Awe 9
Sromeror young 8s, 35 RS ees ee 8) 6120

» Of pheasants Le MEP cian ots tesDDeeD
Foxes, protection of nests ane S en ee LS
Frohawk, Mr. F. W., on the Sungarian bshaaicent oe 206
Semioceimigpheasamts! 32) 22 3 2. .-s «. »« «» L651
BmMCeeaS TOO: 20 fe fie se igs 122, 192
PonmOMenMetsaMb: rk ee jee as Sw we DDD

a Pe wild in Oregon ROIS = Maer aie ane 5 ie 7)
Gould on P. sceemmerringii Meee! once Nee So ge OG)

,» on P. torquatus Pee Rs hh Gree 53. ea Ra GhO

» on P. versicolor PAP ott Riga hE oc OS
Gramite grit for pheasamts.. .. .«. .. .. 85, 108, 166
Grasshoppers eaten by pheasants .. .. .. .. .. 58
Greece, distribution of pheasants in io aE, a 8 en
Greaves, objections HONS ee ee. UR ce eee ce ein eee wd
Guisachan, Reeves’s pheasant if ee rete ae ralh See Wa D

Hammond Smith, Dr. H., on food for pheasants a 84, 85

a - ” on diseases of pheasants oy eel a6
fe ¥: - on markings of P. colchicus and

Fe DORQUMUUS) ge wes a es a) ec ON

Harting, Mr. J. E., on pheasant in Middle Ages... .. 30

s - - feeding on slow-worm 7

we 5 in ancient Psalter .. 34

a 3 on rooks destroying eggs ee et!)

si on trap for taking pheasants not

Hedgehogs destructive to eggs... .. SIE oe re ae)

Heine, H., on habits of Japanese ailcueunta so eh CA eID,

Hens assuming cock plumage .. .. Ma gies ae

Hens, varieties best adapted for aiehine eee te ee tal

Peeevisited byowild cocks 24° 25 hacen 20 (ls, 187

Hewitt, E., on Golden a NMR) Ss: | Sh ges 228

Huts for shelter .. .. rita, 32% Ce Ae ayes oe

Hybud Reeves’s pheasant... .. .. +s «+ «9 +e 205

264. Index.

Impeyan pheasant 28 ee aie ae a Eater
Incubation, period of .. .. .. .. .. -50°— eee
‘ by male birds... .. .. 5. 520s
Introduction into England .+ .. .. 2s
- if Scotland. 2. .. 9.2 2205
oy ws Treland PE

New Zealand os os ee eee 38
North América. =>. “2. See 39

f he St. Helena ... <. .. J. Qe eeeeeeee
a = Samoa... .. 2s os «: [ne
ks * Seandinavia WO se
Japanese pheasant years oa als St
Jefferies, Richard, on heasatir rearing ..\ “2. 54.
Jesses for tethering hens .. ../'.. <5) eee
Kaleege .. .. ssl (echt
Kestrel odeasionally destenciene ee young « phew oe) he

Klein, Dr., on diseases of pheasants Mees

Latham, Dr., on Reeves’s ae os |
Laying, ‘pie o: PERE OS
Lead poisoning, question a MOP 55
Leno, Mr., on pens for pheasantries .. os el
Lettuces for food’... .. .. “S29
Lice in pheasants a We 3 weg iis
Lilford, Lord, on the food of Sheasanteme 25 ee 6

2 ,, on the introduction by the Rowan = es

2s » on Reeves’s eri eae)
Lophophorus wmpeyanus .. .. 22 eens
Little owl, destructive to young pleanaile .:) <5 en
Lort, W., on feeding in coverts.. .. «. <2 =e

Macgillivray, description of the common pheasant .. 170

‘ on polypody as food of pheasants... .. 4
Maggots as food .. .. .. =. =. =. Se) sGo,mleaninee
from seaweed... .. 46 | vee Ane) ee ole ene

be]

Index.

Male plumage, assumption of, by female
Manchurian Eared pheasant
Marco Polo on Reeves’s pheasant
Mayes, Mr. J., on Reeves’s pheasant

», on the Golden pheasant
Millais, Mr. J. G., on Reeves’s pheasant
Mock pheasants, to make .. 050 he
Monaul et
Mongolian pheasant
Moorhens destructive to young i Heawanits

Naumann on the pheasant
Nesting

3 boxes
Nests in trees ; :
Net for catching See in aviaries ..
Non-domesticity of common pheasants

Oak-spangles as food for pheasants

Ogilvie-Grant, Mr., on species of pheasants ..

» ,, on the Silver pheasant
» ,» on P. sevntillans
Onion tops for food
Open pens for hen pheasants
“Orpington disease’ in pheasants ..

Ovaries, disease of, and change of plumage .

Overfeeding

Partridges laying in pheasants’ nests. .
Pens for pheasants :
Perry, Commodore, expedition a he
Phasianus alpherakyi ..

Be chrysomelas
a colchicus
33 decollatus

“3 elegans

265

page 64, 159
toy ny oe
195

204

231

202.

65

248

189

72

a 258
14,19
112

266 Index.

Phasianus hagenbecki .. .. «+ (si «et =e | @epeGemee
Ps insignis ss wes. od eve ses gee
= MONGOWCUS 2. 6s em! os) vec! (aly eee
- persicus err
e PUCHUS seo ea/ Tere) Jele |) ee gel
y principalts ... .. 2 «+ | pe |e

re reeves os as) ee ale als | ape ee een

a Sentallans .. 1% <a) ws as Se

- ShAWU 2. 2. 2. «6 06° 20) eicneeee ere

a SOMMEPTINGU 2. sa ee) ee, ee

a strauchr rrr sl

*: Ssuperbus. «2 s. .20 cas oe) (ee

5 forquatuS 2. 2. se See 25 sre
VENCTALUS 52) a ee ee ee

ms wersicolor ss ws ss ee

35 vlangalr wet os) Geel wis | ste) Spears
wallachaa =... .. et oS Se

Phossanty benefit to aecioulectate cs ae re 6
Pied pheasants .. .. eee
Pigot, Sir Digby, on eee es’s pheasant .+ (see Geena
Pinioning os WD ee pele) ie ethene genet er
Pneumonia .. ws. Wa cw Sele

Poaching, devices i clieok Weerrmer
Poisoning by sheeps’ wool... .. «.., «.: ==) eeueeemeeelas

mS by shot, qetation: of oe» occ) Gael) Snr

5 by yews. oi. |. -o) set p< joe) Soe
Polygamy im pheasants .. ©. «.. =. <<) eee 14
Potatoes,boiled?; use7eb <<. ° osc 2.) eee 52, 83
Prince of Wales’s pheasant wis | uae ye 4) pater nn

Raisins for pheasants .. .. . a+ ietse) Feeel
Ravensworth, Lord, on Reeves’s “pheasant a4 Papyy
Rearing In preserves... .. .- «- sae. as <2) ODemOlS

3 young pheasants .. .. .. «= -2 eee
Reeves’s pheasant. 2. 2. «4. <. ©aoh lense
Ring-necked; pheasant... .. .. 1. «+ o0 02.) =e

Index.

Rooks destructive to a i Le me en pages:

Roosting, trees for :
Rothschild, Hon. Walter, on Nip arolan Pheasant
Roup : :

Saurin, Mr. D. E., on Reeves’s pheasant in Pekin
nf = ,, on the Chinese pheasant
Scent, suppression of, during incubation
Sclater, Dr. P. L., on transport of pheasants
Seurfy legs in pheasants
Sexes, due proportion required
Sham eggs
Shot, are renga: Daoned or mune ?
Shrubs suitable for coverts
Silver pheasant st os Sage og.
Sinclaire, Mr. W., on Golden pheasants
Sitting-boxes .. ray
Slow-worms and vipers eaten . DhCaeein ts :
Scemmerring’s pheasant
Species of pheasants, list of
Species of pheasants, the determination ‘of Sts nage
Stephen, Mr. C., on the Prince of Wales’s pheasant .

Stevenson on cross-bred pheasants .. .. .. .. 165,

Stone, J. J., mtroduction of Reeves’s pheasant 2
Straying, to prevent
Sunderland, Col. M., on the ferns of Wales’ g yoheaaant
Sungarian Piowsant:
Swimming, instances of ee.
Swinhoe, Consul, on the Eared pheeeentt

a - »» 3, silver pheasant

ae “A Races UChmege® os;

Taking up pheasants

Tameness, examples of

Testing Eggs ..

Tethering hens with young Riteneanic

268 Index.

Thaumalea amherstte .. .. .. «2 %. «- os page Zan
5 obscura 224

£: picta 292
Thompson on food of Siosee 4
Tickell, Col., on the Monaul 248
Transport of pheasants, instructions for. . 95.
Trapping birds for pens +
Trees suitable for coverts -. .. .: =. “.. sc
Tuberculosis ; 143
Turkey-hens as rearers 117
Vegetable food, necessity for .. .. .. .. .. 85, 128
Vipers devoured by pheasants .. 8
Wallace, Dr. A. R., on the Argus pheasant .. 253:
Water, catchpools for, in coverts 59
» rearing young with or without .. 130
Water-hens destructive to young pheasants .. 72
Waterton on non-domesticity of pheasant 27
on formation of coverts .. 52
Weight of common species. . 21
White pheasants iAP gh SUE. ae ae 173
Whyte, Col. J., on rooks destroying eggs 68
Windows broken by pheasants .. ae g
Wireworms eaten by pheasants : 6.
Wood, T. W., on the display of Argus plieasaae 255,
5 s 3 S Golden pheasant 223.
Wool, death of young pheasants caused by eating 162
Worms, intestinal, in pheasants. . 150:
Yew leaves and seeds poisonous to pheasants 163.

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