BAXDTAILED PIGEOX 575 



number seven to fifteen in a set, are short ovate in shape and average, 

 in inches (different sets) 1.50 by 1.30 and 1.61 by 1.31. Their color 

 is plain buff or greenish buff without markings of any sort. In Oregon 

 it is said that tliree broods are reared in a season. Where nests are 

 sj'stematieally visited and the eggs regularly removed, hen pheasants 

 will lay from 50 to 80 eggs in a season, and in one recorded instance 

 a bird was known to have laid 108 eggs (Field, Graham and Adams, 

 1914, p. 3). The period of incubation is twenty-two days. In captiv- 

 ity when the members of a brood are four to eight weeks old they 

 can care for themselves. In autumn, the birds band together in flocks, 

 and remain together through the winter, until the next nesting season. 



In this country the Ring-necked Pheasant is an omnivorous feeder, 

 taking almost anything which it can find in the way of food mate- 

 rials, but it seems to prefer insects, when these are available, to grain 

 and seeds. In certain districts of Oregon where the species is notably 

 numerous the birds have done damage to truck gardens and corn 

 patches. On the other hand, three captive pheasants, five weeks old, 

 have been seen to eat between 250 and 300 hou.se flies within one-half 

 hour. In Massachusetts where Ring-necked Pheasants were intro- 

 duced from Oregon in about 1894, the birds have been found to eat 

 practically all of the common insect pests of the garden. Stomachs 

 of pheasants shot while supposedly damaging gardens or farm crops 

 showed 22 per cent grain (all waste except in one instance), 21 per 

 cent tomatoes, 15 per cent insects, and 23 per cent weed seeds. The 

 balance was of no economic importance or was not determined (Field, 

 Graham and Adams, 1914, pp. 8, 9). 



Here in California this pheasant feeds chiefly in grain fields and 

 grass lands although it also forages in willow thickets and, in some 

 interior counties, has been found in thick manzanita and scrub oak 

 brush. In Inyo County pheasants search the grain fields for "taboosi" 

 (Brodiaca seed?). They are said also to do some damage to grain 

 fields, vineyards and gardens. 



In any event the pheasant is not yet to be reckoned as established 

 in more than a few localities, its spread will be slow if it continues 

 at all, and many years will elapse before the species will be of much 

 importance, from either the hunter's or the farmer's standpoint. 



Band-tailed Pigeon 



Columha fasciata fasciata Say 



Other xames — Blue Pigeon; Wild Pigeon; Columha moniUs ; CMoroenas 

 fasciata fasciata. 



De-scription — Adults, both sexes: Head pinkish brown or vinaceous (exact tint 

 varying greatly among different individuals), darkest and more purplish on top 



