PHEASANT. 191 



amusement to their owners, and they would, therefore, be the most 

 valuable birds to introduce to our coverts. They are all true 

 Pheasants, and as Mr, Tegetmeier says, " are mere geographical 

 variations of one type, capable of breeding together, and of per- 

 petuating any cross between them that it may please experimenters 

 to produce." So that with such varied beauty as the foundation, 

 it would be quite possible, by judicious selection, for every large 

 estate in the country to obtain its own distinctive cross of birds. 



Hereford is fortunate, at this time, in having as a resident, one 

 of the most experienced and successful importers and breeders of 

 this very beautiful tribe of birds. Mr. George Home has made it his 

 hobby for the last twenty years, to obtain and rear these stranger 

 Pheasants. He has spared neither time nor expense in the work, 

 and the experience he has gained in their management, with all 

 the generosity of a scientific naturalist, he places at the service of 

 any one interested in the subject ; and is at all times pleased 

 to show his beautiful birds. 



Mr. Home began by rearing the Golden Pheasant (Thmcmalia 

 picta) and the Lady Amherst Pheasant ( Thaumalia amhersii). He 

 then crossed these varieties, and obtained the very beautiful 

 specimens now exhibited in the Hereford Museum. He has also 

 kept the Impeyan Pheasant, the Siamese Fireback, Swinhoe's 

 Peacock-Pheasant, from the Island of Formosa, which has eyes like 

 the Peacock on each feather, Reeves', versicolor^ Elliot's and several 

 other varieties. 



It is impossible to visit Mr. Home's aviaries, without hoping 

 that before many years have elapsed, these beautiful varieties may 

 adorn the parks and woods of Shobdon, Stoke Edith, Hampton 

 Court, Holme Lacy, Whitfield, and many others which might be 

 named in Herefordshire, and which are all so well adapted for 

 rearing and protecting Pheasants. It would be a great ornament 

 to see beautiful birds, such as the reevesi, with their glorious 

 plumage of golden-bronze, and fully six feet in length, feeding up 

 to the very windows of the mansions. The birds are not difficult 



