174 



MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



where it frequents practically every kind of ground, although it is found less often — at least in 

 summer — in dense woods than in open, thinly settled farming country, where it feeds at morn- 

 ing and evening well out in cultivated or grassy fields and skulks during the remainder of the 

 day about the edges of briery thickets or in beds of rank herbaceous plants. In these respects 

 its habits resemble those of our Qiiail. Like that bird, too, it sometimes comes close about build- 

 ings when the ground is deeply covered with snow and food difficult to obtain. During the 

 winter of 1902-1903 a dozen or more Pheasants were frequently seen, shortly after sunrise, 

 feedino- on a large manure heap near a barn on the Hittinger farm, just to the westward of 

 Fresh Pond. When disturbed they invariably separated into two flocks which fiew off in differ- 

 ent directions. It is said that a nest containing eggs was found not far from the eastern con- 

 fines of this farm in the spring of 1902. 



I have compiled the following brief statement of the more important facts and dates relating 

 to the introduction of these Pheasants from the annual reports of the Massachusetts Commis- 

 sioners of Inland Fisheries and Game.' 



In the summer of 1S94 a few birds were obtained, apparently from Oregon, by Mr. Samuel 

 Forehand and by him were presented to the Massachusetts Commissioners of Inland Fisheries 

 and Game who erected a ' State aviary ' for their reception at Winchester. Although a number 

 of eggs were laid, it does not appear that any chicks were reared that season. 



Early the next spring twelve more birds (three cocks and nine hens) were received, also 

 from Oregon. They bred so successfully that by the close of the summer there were consider- 

 ably more than seventy-five young birds, many of which were allowed to escape into neighbor- 

 ing gardens and woods. 



The following year over two hundred chicks were reared in the aviary, while nests with eggs 

 and broods of young, belonging to escaped birds, were found in various parts of Winchester. 



In 1S97 nine pairs of mature birds were liberated in Winchester, and a number of broods of 

 young were seen in that town. A Pheasant was killed in Watertown during this year. 



In their report for 1S99 the Commissioners state that "there have been but few [Pheasants] 

 liberated in Winchester from the State aviary, yet this and the surrounding towns are becoming 



fairly well stocked On one estate, within two miles of the aviary, the owner reports that 



not less than seven or eight broods have been seen this season, and surely not less than fifty 

 birds reared." 



From the standpoint of the naturalist the introduction of most exotic forms of animal life 

 must ever be a matter of regret rather than of satisfaction. And these Pheasants, despite their 

 undeniable beauty of form and coloring and reputed value as game, seem deplorably out of place 

 in a New England landscape. Even if they do not crowd out our Quail or Rufted Grouse, — as 



' In these reports the birds are invariably referred to as ' Mongolian Pheasants,' and the Commis- 

 sioners distinctly assert in one connection (Report for 1894, p. 17) that they declined to purchase 

 specimens of the "ordinary ring-neck, a very different pheasant from the Mongolian." I have had 

 no opportunity of closely e.xamining any of the birds which they have introduced, but other ornitholo- 

 gists who have done so (among whom may be named as good an authority as Mr. Outrani Bangs) 

 have unhesitatingly pronounced them to be P. toyquatus. Mr. Robert Ridgway in the last edition of 

 his ' Manual of North American Birds' (p. 206) cites torquatus among the species which have become 

 naturalized in Oregon (whence our Massachusetts birds were originally derived) and does not mention 

 the Mongolian Pheasant as occurring in North America at all. A recent popular writer on Pheasants 

 also refers to "the so-called ' Mongolian ' pheasant, properly the China Ring-neck, or Torquatus" ; 

 adding, "the true Mongolian has never reached this country alive. " (Homer Davenport, Country 

 Life in America, IV, 1903, 335.) 



