22 THE CHINA OR DENNY PHEASANT IN OREGON 
young males begin to discard the quiet dress of the mother for their brilliant adult plumage. 
The fact before referred to, that hybrids are appearing among the grouse and pheas- 
ants, is creating a good deal of popular comment and scientific interest. Already several 
of these crosses between the China pheasant and sooty grouse have appeared, bred in the 
wild, and it is rather unauthentically reported that ruffed grouse hybrids have also been 
seen in the Valley. There are in Corvallis at the present time, strange, ungainly birds, 
resulting from the cross between pheasants and domestic fowls. 
The sooty grouse-pheasant hybrids are beautiful birds, but rather inert and _spirit- 
less, showing, in an interesting though an inconstant way, markings of both species. ‘Two 
of these birds, captured in the woods while still chicks, and reared in captivity, led peace- 
ful, uneventful lives, growing to a magnificent size, but showing no inclination to breed. 
Of late years there has been shown among the residents of Western Oregon a desire 
to domesticate China pheasants, but on account of the apparently untamable nature of 
the birds, the results are often discouraging, though by exercising skill and knowledge 
together with the proper amount of patience and perseverance, very gratifying results 
are obtained by some, and their rearing in domestication has led to an industry of con- 
siderable interest and importance. 
In domestication the eggs of the pheasant are usually hatched under bantam hens, 
