34 GAME BIHDS OF CALIFORNIA 



Mr. J. S. Hunter reports that he saw two broods of young and 

 several adult pheasants on the Forgeus Ranch near Williams, Colusa 

 County, in June, 1916. The birds in this locality appear to be 

 thriving. 



Tlie increase in number of pheasants in Owens Valley, Inyo County, 

 has been such as even to lead to some complaint of depredations in 

 grain fields. 



On April 22, 1914, Wall (1915, p. 59) found a wild pheasant's nest 

 with twelve eggs at the edge of a swamp near San Bernardino. 



The Macomber Ranch, at Paicines, San Benito County, has been 

 stocked year by year with hundreds of propagated birds, and pheasants 

 are now reported as abundant throughout the neighborhood of the 

 ranch. 



The present writers are frank to say that their own field experience 

 inclines them to the belief that most of the estimates above listed are 

 more or less padded ; and it seems to us probable that there are less 

 than 15,000 wild birds all told in the state at the present time. In 

 spite of the favorable nature of the reports, pheasants are nowhere 

 considered to be abundant enough to warrant an open season or even 

 to give promise of the possibility of an open season within the near 

 future. 



Attempts to rear fancy breeds of pheasants, such as the Reeves, 

 Lady Amherst, Swinhoe, Bohemian, and Copper, in California, have 

 mostly met with failure. The Golden and Silver pheasants, alone, 

 have been successfully reared in captivity. A few of these, from the 

 State Game Farm, were liberated on Goat Island, San Francisco Bay, 

 in 1915. 



The attempts to acclimatize pheasants in other states have met with 

 varied results. Oregon stands out as the one state which has been 

 really successful. From twenty-six Ring-necked Pheasants imported 

 from China in 1882, and planted in the Willamette Valley, the whole 

 state west of the Cascades has been stocked (Shaw, 1908, pp. 12-15). 

 By 1892, pheasants had become so abundant that an annual open 

 season of two and one-half months was declared, and 50,000 birds 

 were reported to have been killed on the opening day. In 1896, 

 10,000 pheasants were marketed within a single month. A short 

 open season on cock birds still prevails. In Washington and British 

 Columbia the Ring-necked Pheasant is also well established. 



On the other hand, many eastern states have had little or no 

 success in establishing any species of pheasant. The ease witli which 

 the "English" Pheasant could be procured has led to the importation 

 of this bird for stocking purposes in the East, rather than the Cliinese 

 Ring-necked Pheasant. Illinois lias spent many thousands of dollars 

 in attempts to stock the state, but the results to date have been alto- 



