122 WILD IJl-'H IN CHINA. 



preserves, and some stuffed specimens in museLuns. The 

 wretches who supply the miUinery market were the middlemen 

 in this nefarious traffic. But as the result of a public meeting 

 of protest in Shanghai, and some strong representations in 

 the right native quarters, the export was stopped altogether, 

 and PJmsianiis Torquatus was left to himself for the summer 

 except for the attentions of the purveyor for illicit markets. 

 That the China pheasant can stand a good deal of persecution 

 is certain. He has no attentive keeper to bring him his 

 breakfast and supper every day. What he eats he has to 

 forage for, and hence soon learns that independence of action 

 which belongs to all truly wild life. The mother bird is 

 careless at times where she makes her nest. I found nine 

 eggs once quite uncovered out in the middle of a field which 

 was already being prepared for rice. Mr. R. \V. Little of 

 "The N.-C. Daily News"" tried to get them hatched out, but the 

 experiment failed. Still we have Mr. Wade's assurance that 

 though pheasants may not be found in the collected numbers 

 once so common, their ranks are only apparently thinner, 

 dispersion accounting for the seeming scarcity. In all 

 probability this is one of the true explanations of the smallness 

 of modern bags. What the others are may be surmised by 

 shooters themselves. But it is satisfactory to know that 

 there is at present no reason to fear the killing out of the 

 China pheasant. He is being introduced on a large scale 

 into N'ancouver and British Columbia, about 1.000 birds 

 having been turned down there during this present year. That 

 the pheasant can stand the winter there is shown by its power 

 to bear the cold of northern China, and I have myself seen our 

 China bird in fine fettle during the winter in Oregon. 



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