34 BIRDS OF AMERICA 



PHEASANTS 



Order Gallinw ; suborder Phasiani; family Phasiaiiidcs 



ITHIN recent years a new industry, the rearing of Pheasants, has begun to 

 engage attention in the United States, and propagating ventures, ranging 

 from the single pen with one or two pairs of birds to the pheasantry of many 

 acres and thousands of birds, are scattered throughout the country. Some 

 of these experiments have been conducted by the States through their game 

 officials; others, by associations and individuals. In a few cases large expense 

 has been incurred and great care and attention have been bestowed on the 

 experiments. Efforts have been made also to stock numerous public and 

 private parks, preserves, and aviaries. To supply the demand, not only have 

 pheasants been imported from the Old World, but many persons in this country 

 have undertaken to rear them. In view of the widespread and rapidly increasing 

 interest in the subject, the Department of Agriculture has made a special investigation of 

 the methods of Pheasant raising. The results are here condensed in the form of practical 

 suggestions for the benefit of those interested in the industry. 



The true Pheasants are a strictly Old World genus and the species which have been 

 introduced into this country are totally different and distinct from the Ruffed Grouse (called 

 " Partridges" in most of the northern States), which is popularly but quite inaccurately 

 called " Pheasant " in the southern, and also in some of the northern States, notably Ohio 

 and Pennsylvania. This blunder originated in the early settler's habit of applying to 

 American birds the names of more or less similar European species, though in this instance it 

 must have required a considerable tax on the imagination to detect any resemblance between 

 the strikingly colored and very long-tailed European Pheasants and the neutral hued, 

 always short-tailed Grouse of the New World. 



A few words as to different kinds of Pheasants are essential to a proper understanding 

 of the subject of Pheasant propagation. The Ring-necked Pheasant usually imported from 

 China, its natural home, has a broad white ring about the neck. It is variously called Ring- 

 neck Pheasant, Chinese Pheasant, China Pheasant, China Torquatus Pheasant, Chinese 

 Ringneck, Mongolian Pheasant, Denny Pheasant, and Oregon Pheasant. 



The English Pheasant has no ring about the neck. It is imported from Europe, but in 

 comparatively small numbers, and is known as the English Pheasant, Dark-necked Pheasant, 

 and Hungarian Pheasant. 



The English Ringneck Pheasant, a hybrid between the English and Ring-necked Pheasants, 

 has been brought from Europe in large numbers. It is generally correctly named, but is 

 sometimes designated as English Pheasant, Ringneck Pheasant, and even Mongolian 

 Pheasant. It often has more or less of the blood of the Versicolor Pheasant, of Japan. In 

 England both the English Pheasant and the English Ringneck are referred to as the Common 

 Pheasant. 



The Mongolian Pheasant which has a more or less complete white ring about the neck, 

 but in other respects resembles the English Pheasant more than it does the Ringneck, is 

 the rarest of the four kinds in American preserves and aviaries. It is a native of the region 

 about Lake Balkash, Central Asia. 



The Bohemian Pheasant and the White Pheasant are merely color phases, chiefly of 

 the English Pheasant and the English Ringneck. The Reeves Pheasant, a large and striking 

 bird with a tail sometimes five or six feet long, is usually met with in aviaries, though it has 

 been placed in game coverts in Europe and, to a very limited extent, in the United States, 

 and may still be found on certain Scotch estates, where it ranks very high as a game bird. 

 It normally inhabits east-central Asia. 



Two of the best known and most commonly imported Pheasants are the Golden and 

 Lady Amherst, both of the genus Chrysolophiis, originally from the mountains of eastern 

 Tibet and western and southern China. Both are favorite aviary birds, and the Golden 

 Pheasant has been liberated in various game covers in America and Europe, but with indiffer- 



