CHAPTER XV 



The Amherst Pheasant ( Thauvia/ea Amherstid) 



(The Flower Pheasant) 



This is a very beautiful species, in many of its features closely 

 allied to that of the Golden Pheasant, with which it forms an 

 admirable hybrid, excelling in beauty of plumage that of either 

 the Amherst or the Golden ; and anyone interested in the 

 breeding- of Pheasants cannot do better than mate these two 

 species together, and hybrids thus produced are perfecdy 

 fertile, which is exactly what one would expect, when two 

 birds belonging to the same genus, though of a different 

 species, are mated together. 



The Amherst Pheasant is, however, a most useful addition 

 to the coverts, improving as it does the brilliancy of the 

 plumage of the common Pheasant. The first pair of birds 

 of this species introduced into Great Britain were brought 

 over from India by Lady Amherst, to whom they were given 

 by Sir Archibald Campbell. This was about 1828, but it was 

 not until 1869 that these birds were imported into the 

 Zoological Society's Gardens, at Regent's Park, where they 

 bred freely in the aviaries. Subsequendy other birds were 

 imported by Mr Stone, and the result has been that Amherst 

 Pheasants are not at all uncommon in the aviaries of Pheasant 

 farms ; likewise in many coverts. 



In its native haunts the Amherst Pheasant is said to be 

 most abundant about the rocks of desolate mountains, and 

 that it prefers to inhabit these localities, in preference to 

 forests. It is a slightly larger bird than the Golden Pheasant, 



90 



