12 THE CHINA OR DENNY PHEASANT IN OREGON 



stocking of game in many another state. In 1880 the late Judge O. N. Denny, then 

 Consul- General to Shanghai, after whom the legislature of Oregon has since called the 

 bird the "Denny pheasant," formulated the idea of introducing these beautiful creatures 

 into his home in the United States. In his own words, "The Chinese farmers never shoot 

 the birds nor do anything which tends to frighten them from their fields, holding them 

 friends rather than enemies, doing far more good to their crops than harm by the 

 destruction of insects. They take them with nets and market them alive, but the fact that 

 they were often poor and thin induced me to purchase them by the dozen and feed them 

 until they were fat and fit for my table. On one occasion I had in my inclosure a large 

 number of extraordinarily handsome birds, and while admiring them I thought, What 

 would I not give to be able to turn the entire lot adrift in Oregon ? Then and there the 

 resolve was made." 



The first shipment, consisting of seventy birds, reached Olympia on Puget Sound 

 safely and were then put into small ordinary coops to be sent to Portland. The coops 

 were left uncovered, and on that short trip they beat themselves so violently against the 

 bars in terror of the strange sights and sounds about them, that but seven or eight reached 

 their destination alive; and they were so bruised that they soon died. With some the 

 story would have ended here, yet apparent failure, accompanied as it was by no light 



