1'UASUNIDA 



PHASIANID.E. 



2-1 



to have beta <mnp<M by the chief master-cook of King Richard II., 

 we And a receipt "for to boile Feeant, Ptruch (partridges), Capons, 

 and Curlew,- which carries us back to 1381. We read of toe 



" Fiwkon and the Peasant boCfa," 



a the old Vi1~ of the ' Battle of Ottorbourne.' At the ' Intronaza- 

 tion of 

 Edward 

 the 'No 



are valued at twelve pence each. In the charges of Sir John Nevile, 

 of Chete, at l-mmM Assizes, in the twentieth year of the reign of 

 King Henry VIII., we find twelve pheasants charged twenty shillings; 

 and they seem to have maintained their value, as, among the 

 expenses of the same Sir John Nevile, for, as he writes it, " the 

 marriage of my son-in-law, Roger Rockley, and my daughter Elizabeth 

 Nevile, the 14th of January, in the seventeenth year of the reigne of 

 our soveraigne lord King Henry VIII.," U the following : "Item in 

 Pheasant* 18, 24 shillings." We trace the birds in ' A C. Mery Talys,'* 

 printed by John RasteU, where we read of " Mayster Skelton, a poyet 

 hvuryat, that brought* the bysshop of Norwiche U. feeauntys." RasteU 

 began to print as early as 1517, and ceased in 1533. In Turberville's 

 Booke of Falconrie' the ' Fezanf and ' Peasants' for, with the licence 

 of the time, it is spelled both ways are mentioned as the subjects of 

 hawking, and so the bird may be traced as a dish for the table, or the 

 object of field sports, down to the present time. 



Hen pheasant* in this country begin to lay in April, and deposit 

 from eight or ten to fourteen olive-brown eggs, in a rough nest on 

 the ground. Sometimes two will lay in the same nest The young 

 make their appearance towards the end of May or beginning of Juue. 



Where the country is favourable it is easy to get up a head of 

 pheasants, with the aid of good keepers ; but it is more difficult to 

 keep them at home, for they are wandering birds, and will often leave 

 the place where they are bred, in search of food more agreeable to 

 Vtm and localities more congenial to their habits. Warm covers and 

 water are absolutely necessary ; and if they are plentifully supplied 

 with grateful food, but few of them will become vagrants. Jerusalem 

 artichokes, potatoes, and buckwheat, as well as barley, are favourites. 

 Small stacks of the latter grain in the straw are frequently placed 

 about the preserves, and there the pheasants may be seen scratching 

 at their feeding-time ; but this mode of supply is objectionable, as the 

 poacher soon finds out the several points of attraction, and avails 

 himself of them accordingly. Mr. Yarrell states that one good mode 

 of inducing them to stop at home is to sow, in summer, beans, peas, 

 and buckwheat mixed together, leaving the whole crop standing on 

 the ground. The strong and tall stalks of the beans carry up and 

 sustain the other two, and all three together afford for a long time 

 food and cover. (' History of British Bird*') The same author tells 

 us that at the end of autumn he has found the crops of the birds 

 distended with acorns of so huge a size, that they could not have been 

 swallowed without great difficulty. In December 1834 we saw eight 

 ripe acorns and a ripe hazel-nut taken out of the crop of a hen pheasant 

 from Sussex. The acorns had begun to germinate with the heat and 

 moisture of the crop, and they were sent up to the Gardens of the 

 Zffffli>gtgfil Society in the Regent's Park, and there planted. For 

 autumnal and winter home-feeding we have seen potatoes used with 

 excellent effect, not only in keeping the birds from wandering, but in 

 Innsesliifl their weight and fatness. Carte loaded with raw potatoes 

 were from time to time driven into the covers, and the potatoes were 

 scattered about by hand. The pheasants soon found them out, and 

 throve accordingly, without being collected together at particular spots, 

 as they too often are to their destruction. They are very general 

 feeders ; neither blackberries, sloes, nor haws come amiss to them, and 

 grain, seeds, and tender leaves find their way into the pheasant's crop 

 as well as insects. Mr. Selby observed that these birds sought after 

 the root of the acrid Bulbous Crowfoot (RanunctUtu butboiut, Common 

 Buttercup) in May and June, and a friend informed Mr. Yarrell that 

 they also feed on the Pilewort Crowfoot (Ranuncultu Picaria). Mr. 

 Selby further states that the bulb of the garden tulip is an article of 

 diet which the pheasant omit* no opportunity of obtaining, and which, 

 however deeply buried, the bird is almost certain to reach by means 

 of iu bill and feet The size to which these birds attain when well 

 fed is considerable. In the catalogue of Norfolk and Suffolk birds, by 

 the Rev. Revett Sbeppard and the Rev. William Whitear (' Linn. 

 Trmn*.,' voL xv.), the weight of a cock pheasant killed at Campsey Ash, 

 where the birds were well fed wild potatoes, buckwheat, and barley, 

 U stated at four pounds and a half. " Some winters since," says Mr. 

 Yarrell, " my friend Mr. Louis Jaquier, then of the Clarendon, pro- 

 duced a brace of cock pheasant* which weighed together above nine 

 pound*. The lighter bird of the two just turned the scale against four 

 pounds and a half; the other bird took the scale down at once. The 

 weight* were accurately ascertained in the presence of several friends 

 to decide a wafer, of which I was myself the loser.* 



The assumption of the plumage of the cock pheasant by the female 

 when, through old age or organic defect, she is no longer capable of 

 reproducing the species, U by no means uncommon, not more rare 

 indeed, if so much, as it i* in the pea-fowl* [PAVOBIDX], common 

 poultry, Jtc. ; indeed John. Hunter (' Animal Economy ') remarks that 

 AUaded to in 8h*kpm'* ' Much Ado *bout Nothing" 



this change has been principally observed in the common pheasant 

 Mr. Yarrell, in his ' History of British Birds,' also refers to this fact 

 Blumenbaoh, in his interesting paper, ' De anomalis et vitiosis qui- 

 busdam nisus formativi aberrationibus oommentatio,' read before the 

 Guttiugen Royal Society in July, 1813, ha> entered fully and particu- 

 larly into this subject The species in which he had known the change 

 of plumage to be observed were CWusioa d'nai, Phatianut (iailut, 

 C'o/cAtctu, and Picttu, Pavo crittottu, Otit tarda, Emberito paraditea 

 and Ivnyicauda, Pipra rupicola, and Anat Butchat. Alluding to the 

 eggs which have been sold as Cock's Eggs, he observes, that to him it 

 seems most probable that such specimens have been laid by hens 

 which had either assumed the plumage of cocks from their youth up, 

 or upon whom the change had come in their old age. Though such 

 phenomena are usually gallinaceous, they are not confined to that 

 family ; for he relates that Professor Erhord sent to him an egg hud 

 by a canary bird that sang loudly and excellently, having all the 

 appearance of a cock bird. The egg was one-half less than the usual 

 size, but of the ordinary form and colour. 



Hen pheasants which have begun to put on the livery of the mole 

 are not always incapable of producing eggs. Sir Philip Egerton has 

 informed us that a hen pheasant at Oulton Park, Cheshire, which hod 

 nearly assumed the plumage of the cock, kid a nest full of eggs, from 

 which she was driven by the curiosity of persons who came to gaze at 

 so strange a sight She then laid another nest full of eggs, sat upon 

 them, and hatched them ; but the young all died soon after they were 

 excluded. 



There are white and pied varieties. The Ring-Necked and Bohemian 

 Pheasants appear to be considered as varieties by Mr. Yarrell ; Tern- 

 minck and Sir W. Jardino consider the former to be completely distinct 

 The English reader will find the reasons for the latter opinion stated 

 at length iu ' The Naturalist's Library ' (' Ornithology '), vol. iii. 



Various instances of the Common Pheasant breeding with other 

 gallinaceous birds are on record. Edwards has figured a bird supposed 

 to have been produced between a pheasant and a turkey. Three or 

 four of these were discovered in the woods near the house of Henry 

 Seymour, Esq., of Handford, Dorsetshire, and he shot one in October 

 1759, the' bird which he sent to Edwards. Mr. Yarrell (' British 

 Birds') observes that ho has twice been shown birds that were said to 

 be the produce of the Pheasant and the Quinea Fowl, and the evidence 

 of the plumage was in favour of the statement We have seen such 

 a bird, and its feathers corroborated the allegation that it had been so 

 produced. Hybrids between the Pheasant and Gray Hen are also 

 recorded. [BLACK-COCK.] Mr. Thompson of Belfast describes ('Maga- 

 zine of Zoology and Botany ') another hybrid shot at Lochnaw, 

 \Vigtonshire, where it had been seen several times on the wing by 

 persons who supposed it to be a wild turkey. In the surrounding 

 plantations pheasants and block grouse were numerous ; but this 

 individual, which was preserved for Sir Andrew Agnew, Bart, M.P., 

 was the only one of the kind observed. Mr. John Leadbeater, in 

 1837, exhibited a hybrid between the Pheasant and Black Grouse, shot 

 near Aluwick, at a meeting of the Zoological Society. This the Duke 

 of Northumberland presented to the British Museum. 



The union between the Common Hen and the Cock Pheasant is by 

 no means rare, as is well known to those whose homesteads border 

 upon pheasant preserves. The produce of this union is called a Pero. 



Before we leave the True Pheasants we must notice some of the 

 magnificent Indian species, which exhibit such a prodigality of splen- 

 dour and beauty in their plumage as almost realises the birds which 

 we read of in fairy tales. Such are the well-kuown gorgeous Gold- 

 Pheasant (Pkaiianut pictut. Linn. : Genus, Thaumalea, Wagler ; 

 Chrytolophui, J. E. Gray ; Nycthemerut, Sw.), the equally well-known 

 delicately-pencilled Silver-Pheasant (Phatianut Nycthanerut, Linn. : 

 Genus, (rennaui, Wagler; ffyclhemenu, Sw. ; ii]>locomu$, J. E. Gray), 

 and the noble Hooves' a Pheasant (P/uuumtu rtneratiui, Temm. : Qouux, 

 Syrmalicuf, Wagler). 



The first two of these (natives of China) are common in almost 

 every aviary, and there is no reason why they should not thrive well 

 if turned out in our preserves ; the second species has, we believe, 

 been so turned out with success ; the lost U also found iu China, but, 

 as it would seem, on the very confines of the empire. It is very 

 rare in Pekin. Dr. Latham's description was taken from Sir John 

 Anstruther's drawings, and from some writing under them in the 

 Persian language it appeared that the bird was called Doomdurour, or 

 Long-Tail, and it was found on the snowy mountains of Suriuiigur. 



To Mr. Ueeves we are indebted for the first individual ever brought 

 alive to Europe. It was a male, and continued to live for some time 

 in the garden in the Regent's Park. Tail-feather* from it wore 

 exhibited to the Society iu 1831, measuring each about 6 feet 6 inches 

 in length. A second male specimen was also sent to their menagerie 

 by the same liberal donor in 1834. 



Then there are the beautiful Diord's Pheasant (Phatianui verticolor, 

 Vieill.), which haunts the Japanese woods, and exhibits the manners 

 and habit* of our Common Pheasant; the rare and elegant Som- 

 uiering'M Pheasant (/'. Simmeringii, Temm.), also a native of Japan. 



We should also call the reader's attention to the beautiful P. Stacrii 

 (figured and described by Mr. Gould in his 'Century') as one of the 

 True Pheasants ; and to P. Pucratia and P. allto-crtitatiu, also there 

 figured. P. Pucratia appears to lead the way from the True Pheasants 



