A LOOK BACKWARD 519 
Pierre Lorillard and Rutherford Stuyvesant and turned 
out at various points in New Jersey and along the 
border between that State and New York, stocked in a 
limited way a considerable territory west of the Hudson 
River. 
In the year 1881, nineteen Chinese pheasants were 
imported to Victoria. Vancouver Island, and set free 
there, while a law was enacted giving them absolute 
protection for five years. They increased astonish- 
ingly, so that when the closed time was ended there 
was excellent shooting in the neighborhood of Victoria, 
and it was estimated that during the first season not 
less than 3,000 pheasants were killed. During the 
winter the birds could be seen, sometimes along the 
roadside and often in the cultivated fields, and were 
evidently very abundant. 
The introduction of the pheasants in Oregon and 
California was generally welcomed, and public feeling 
protected the birds. It appeared that the climate was 
well suited to them. They increased rapidly, and now 
for many years have been abundant on the coast, but 
chiefly in the region of great precipitation. They have 
apparently not spread greatly to the south, into the dry 
region of California, although in that State there are 
believed to be some persons breeding pheasants in semi- 
confinement in a small way. 
The birds are popular on the coast. Some fruit-rais- 
ers, to be sure, declare that they injure the crops, but 
on the whole they are regarded as a welcome addition 
