56 Reeves's pheasant. 



chimney-sweepers in London on May-day) were 

 placed erect, on each side of their caps, as a de- 

 coration. The Chinese do not venerate this bird, 

 as was first supposed, and which may have caused 

 Temminck to bestow upon it the specific name of 

 veneratus ; but it is superstitiously believed that 

 the blood of this bird, is possessed of poisonous 

 properties, and that the mandarins, when in ex- 

 pectation of losing their rank, and being sud- 

 denly put to death by order of the emperor, 

 preserve some of it, in a dried state, upon a 

 handkerchief, on sucking which they fall down 

 and instantly expire. I heard the male of this 

 bird, in the aviary, utter a very sweet, mild, 

 and harmonious, whistling note, as it strutted 

 about proudly, arrayed in its elegant plumage ; 

 occasionally approaching near the wires of its 

 habitation, to let the visitors notice and admire 

 him. The ends of the longest feathers of the tail' 

 in the living specimen were broken, although in 

 this place of confinement there is much extent 

 for his movements ; but the feathers are too long 

 ever to expect them to be preserved perfect in 

 any confined place. 



Mr. Beale first succeeded in procuring a living 

 male specimen of this elegant bird in 1808, and 

 kept it in a healthy state for thirteen years. After 

 its death, he endeavoured to procure others, but 



