THE MONGOLIAN PHEASANT. 603 



General Range. — China. Introduced in various localities of the L'nited 

 States. \\'ell established in Washington, Oregon, and southern British Columbia. 



Range in Washington. — Well established on Puget Sound, especially at 

 lower levels, and successfully introduced into various localities of eastern 

 \\'ashingti:in. 



Authorities. — ["Mongolian Pheasant (introduced)," Johnson, Rep. Gov. \\'. 

 T., 1884 (1885), p. 23. J Keck, Wilson Bulletin, Xo. 17, Tune 1904, p. ^5. 

 B. E. 



Specimens. — ( L'. of \\'. I Prov. BX. E. 



THE happiest e\'ent in the historx" of game protection in the Pacific 

 Northwest, or indeed in the entire country, was the introduction, in 1880 and 

 1881, of the China Pheasant by Judge O. N. Denny, of Oregon, then Consul- 

 General to Shanghai. Happiest, we maintain, not alone because the bird draws 

 the fire from our harassed and over-hunted native birds, but because it bids 

 fair to furnish a staple article of food such as normalh- constituted people 

 crave, and sucii as the Many, as distinguished from the favored Few, have a 

 right to demand. 



The move was well considered on the part of Judge Dennv, he having 

 been long impressed with the high reputation which the bird bore in its native 

 land, both as a table bird and as an economic factor in the subjugation of in- 

 sect pests. He, therefore, at great expense, arranged an importation, first of 

 seventy birds, which perished thru lack of proper care before liberation, and 

 later of thirty birds, which were successfully liberated near Peterson's Butte 

 in the Willamette \'alley of Oregon. The Pheasants thus secured immediately 

 established themselves in the Willamette country, and from this importation 

 of 188 1 most of our western stock has sprung. 



There are many factors which conspire to make the [Mongolian Pheasant 

 the favorite as it will be the dominant game bird of the \\'est. In the first 

 place, the male bird is a \-ision of loveliness, gorgeous in coloring be\-ond the 

 abilitv of a mere word-painter to depict, occupying in this regard the same re- 

 lation to other gallinaceous birds that our Wood Duck does to other water- 

 fowl. A cock Pheasant brought to bag is both a dinner and a picture, a feast 

 and a trophy. 



Then, and chief!}', the China Pheasant is a good rustler. Evolved in his 

 nati\-e land under conditions of the most strenuous competition, the pheasant 

 race has developed both adaptability and endurance, staying qualities which 

 give the bird an assured position in any situation remotely similar to that af- 

 forded in China. Under protection. Pheasants a\ail themselves of all the 

 privileges, ranging freely across farms and cultivated areas, finding sufficient 

 cover in neglected fence-rows or wayside thickets, and becoming so bold as to 

 disregard the passer-by, and even to venture into the farmyard to feed with 

 the domestic fowls. Under persecution the bird as quicklv de\-elops wariness 



