Some Naturalized Foreigners 



WESTERN COLONIZING AGENTS 



Activity in introducing foreign birds has been by 

 no means confined to the east. Beside the group of 

 men in St. Louis who naturalized the tree-sparrow 

 already referred to, many individuals throughout the 

 western states have encouraged the immigration of 

 birds from Asia, as well as Europe. The first Mon- 

 golian and other Asiatic pheasants to reach the 

 United States were sent to Oregon from China in 

 1881 by Judge O. N. Denny, formerly consul-general 

 at Shanghai. Most of the birds died on the long 

 voyage, only twelve males and three females reach- 

 ing Portland alive. Later, about three dozen ring- 

 necked pheasants were liberated in one place and 

 nineteen at another. Two years after, golden and 

 silver pheasants were placed with some ring-necks on 

 Protection Island, near Port Townsend, Washington. 

 While all four colonies were successful, the hardy, 

 prolific Mongolian pheasant, as might have been ex- 

 pected, increased more rapidly than all the others put 

 together. Within ten years it had overrun western 

 Oregon, and now promises to become a common 

 game bird if sufficiently protected. 



"English pheasants," says Mr. T. S. Palmer, of 

 the Biological Survey, " have been imported mainly 

 in the eastern states ; some were liberated near 

 Tarrytown, New York, about thirty-five years ago; 

 seventy-eight were turned out on Jekyl Island near 

 Brunswick, Georgia, in 1887, and these increased to 

 eight hundred and fifty during the following year; 

 others were introduced into New Jersey. Since 1890 

 there has been widespread interest in these experi- 



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