310 BULLETIN 162, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



and Hamblin) ; Nevada (Belmont and Queen) ; and eastern Califor- 

 nia (Big Pine and the headwaters of the Owens River). West to 

 eastern California (the headwaters of the Owens River, Long Val- 

 ley, Ravendale, Madeline Plains, Eagle ville, and Tule Lake) ; Ore- 

 gon (Klamath Falls, Silver Lake, Fort Rock, Silvies River, Turtle 

 Cove, and Haines) ; Washington (Rattlesnake Mountains, Yakima, 

 and Ellensburg) ; and (casually) the interior of southern British 

 Columbia (Osoyoos Lake). 



Egg dates. — Washington and Oregon : 16 records, March 11 to May 

 28; 8 records, April 11 to May 6. Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming: 

 25 records, April 25 to June 15 ; 13 records, May 16 to 29. Colorado 

 and Utah : 11 records, May 10 to June 3 ; 6 records, May 19 to 28. 



Family PHASIANIDAE, Pheasants, Peacocks 



PHASIANUS COLCHICUS TORQUATUS Gmelin 

 RING-NECKED PHEASANT 



HABITS 

 Contributed by Charles Wendell Townsend 



Although some of the earlier English settlers in North America 

 called the ruffed grouse the pheasant, a name that is still retained in 

 the southern parts of its range, no true pheasants are native, nor 

 were they successfully introduced into America until 1881, when 

 Judge O. N. Denny, then American consul general at Shanghai, 

 China, after a previous unsuccessful attempt, sent 30 ring-necked 

 pheasants to Oregon. Of these 26 survived and were liberated in 

 the Willamette Valley. Two years later more were sent (Shaw, 

 1908). Although several early attempts at introduction were made, 

 the first successful introduction of pheasants into the East was in 

 1887 by Rutherford Stuyvesant, who brought over a number of birds 

 from England and liberated them on his estate at Allamuchy, N. J. 

 In the nineties, pheasants were brought from England and liberated 

 in various places in Massachusetts and elsewhere. 



The bird proved to be remarkably hardy and prolific and spread 

 rapidly, partly by natural increase and partly by artificial breeding 

 in private and State farms, and by the shipment of eggs and birds to 

 new sections of the country. The bird thrives in the North, but 

 south of Baltimore and Washington, according to Dr. J. C. Phillips 

 (1928), although there have been many attempts at introduction, 

 " the stock does not hold out long if thrown on its own resources." 



W. L. McAtee (1929) says of this bird that it 



now has an almost continuous distribution over the Northern States from coast 

 to coast. It has proved hardy as to climatic conditions, wary as to enemies, 

 and without doubt is more numerous than any native game bird in the area 



