PHEASANTS 



35 



cnl success. The Silver Pheasant is often seen in parks and aviaries, but the numerous 

 other members of the genus, usually called Kaleeges (or Kalijes), are not often imported into 

 this countr>\ The home of the genus is the Indo-Chinese countries and the lower ranges 

 of the Himalayas. 



The Eared Pheasants, large, dull-colored birds of the higher ranges of central and 

 eastern Asia, are known in American aviaries mainly through the Manchurian Pheasant, 

 the most northeriN- member of the genus. These Pheasants lack the timidity so character- 

 istic of most of the Pheasant family and would probably lend themselves readily to domestica- 

 tion. At present their high price is practically prohibitive of any extensive attempt to 

 domesticate them, but, should they become 

 more common, they would be excellent 

 subjects for such experiments. 



The English Pheasant {Phasianus 

 colchicus) derives its specific name from the 

 ancient countn,^ of Colchis, on the eastern 

 shore of the Black Sea. It was imported 

 thence into Europe by the Greeks, probably 

 under Alexander the Great, and was by them 

 reared for food. Its propagation in con- 

 finement was continued in the days of the 

 Roman Empire, under which it appears to 

 have been carried on throughout much of 

 Europe and as far west as Britain. It was 

 introduced into Ireland and Scotland before 

 the close of the sixteenth century. It is 

 now acclimatized practically all over Europe, 

 and has been introduced into the United 

 States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. 



Efforts to acclimatize Pheasants in the 

 United States are of comparatively recent 

 origin, though earlier than is popularly 

 supposed. Richard Bache, an Englishman 

 who married the only daughter of Ben- 

 jamin Franklin, imported from England 

 both Pheasants and Partridges, which he 

 liberated on his estate in New Jersey, on 

 the Delaware River near where the town of 

 Beverly now stands. But, although he 

 provided both shelter and food for them, 

 the birds had all disappeared by the follow- 

 ing spring. 



A second attempt was made early in 

 the nineteenth century by the owner of a 



New Jersey estate situated between the Hackensack meadows and the Passaic River, 

 opposite Belleville. A park was fenced and stocked with deer and English Pheasants, but 

 despite feeding and careful protection these birds likewise disappeared during the winter. 



Robert Oliver of Harewood, near Baltimore, Md., for many years imported foreign 

 game, including not less than one hundred English Pheasants. These increased rapidly 

 and were in time turned out, some at Hampton, some at Brookland Wood, and a large 

 number at Harewood. Those liberated at Hampton and Brookland Wood bred, and were 

 occasionally seen afterwards, but those turned out at Harewood soon disappeared, the last 

 being seen in 1827. In 1829-30, Mr. Oliver liberated at his estate at Oaklands, in Anne 

 Arundel County, more than twenty Pheasants of his own raising. On Mr. Oliver's death 

 his son Thomas continued the experiments, but they proved unsuccessful. 



These initial importations were followed by similar attempts to stock jirivate preserves, 

 but met with like failure. In 1880, however, a successful effort was made to introduce the 

 Vol. II— 4 



Photu by H. T. Middlelon 



WILD RING-NECKED PHEASANT (HEN) 



