88 Aviary Pheasants. 



once I stunned him by accident, and once he slipped 

 out after me to attack me, darted at me, and then flew 

 away. Here was a fix it was a foggy May morning, 

 about 5 a.m. However, I felt sure he would not go 

 far from his wives, so I made his loss known, and 

 offered a reward. I soon had reports from all direc- 

 tions round that he had been seen, and by 6 p.m. 

 the following day I recovered him quite uninjured 

 captured in a gravel pit and restored him to his 

 family. He is a truly superb bird, clean-built, with 

 black, shining legs, very firm and hard, and a spur that 

 would rip up anything. He is very tame so long as 

 you are outside his domain but you must not enter 

 and he is very troublesome when you collect the eggs. 

 He has four beautiful hens, of great size ; truly they 

 are, as Lord Tweedmouth says, " Majesticus," and 

 that should be their name. One of my cocks is just 

 6ft. long! 



Some of the true Phasianus colchicus are to be 

 seen in the next aviary. These are some of the birds 

 imported from the Phasis river, the original home of 

 our English pheasant ; they are hardly so large as 

 our birds, but look like great flyers. They are of 

 the darkest, richest colour possible, with fine coppery 

 backs and necks, red maroon saddle, and the same 

 on the fringe of the tail. I have great hopes of being 

 able to re-establish our original bird a rich red, 

 dark-breasted bird, free from Chinese taint. I have 

 a pen or two of our common pheasants, one pen of 

 which averaged seventy eggs each last year, and the 



