OTHER ANIMALS 643 



pheasant propagation. The ringneck pheasant (Phasianus torqua- 

 tus), usually imported from China, its natural home, has a broad 

 white ring about the neck. It is variously called ringneck pheasant, 

 Chinese pheasant, China pheasant, China torquatus pheasant, Chi- 

 nese ringneck, Mongolian pheasant, Denny pheasant, and Oregon 

 pheasant. The English pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) has no ring 

 about the neck. It is imported from Europe, but in comparatively 

 fcmall numbers, and is known as the English pheasant, dark-necked 

 pheasant, and Hungarian pheasant. The English ringneck pheasant 

 (Phasianus colchicus X torquatus), a hybrid between the English 

 and ringneck pheasants, has been brought from Europe in large 

 numbers. It is generally correctly named, but is sometimes desig- 

 nated as English pheasant, ringneck pheasant, and even Mongolian 

 pheasant. It often has more or less of the blood of the versicolor 

 pheasant of Japan (Phasianus yersicolor) . In England both the 

 English pheasant and the English ringneck are referred to as the 

 common pheasant. The Mongolian pheasant (Phasianus Mongoli- 

 cus), which has a more or less complete white ring about the neck, 

 but in other respects resembles the English pheasant more than it 

 does the ringneck, is the rarest of the four kinds in American pre- 

 serves and aviaries. It is a native of the region about Lake Balkash, 

 Central Asia. The silver pheasant (Gennaeus nycthemerus) is often 

 seen in parks and aviaries, but the numerous other members of the 

 genus, usually called kaleeges (or kalijes), are not often imported 

 into this country. The home of the genus is the Indo-Chinese coun- 

 tries and the lower ranges of the Himalayas. The eared pheasants 

 (Crossoptilon), large, dull-colored birds of the higher ranges of 

 central and eastern Asia, are known in American aviaries mainly 

 through the Manchurian pheasant. Two of the best known and most 

 commonly imported pheasants are the golden and Lady Amherst, 

 both of the genus Chrysolophus, originally from the mountains 

 of eastern Thibet and western and southern China. Both are 

 favorite aviary birds, and the golden pheasant has been liberated in 

 various game covers in America and Europe, but with indifferent 

 success. 



United States. Effort* to acclimatize pheasants in the United 

 States are of comparatively recent origin, though earlier than is 

 popularly supposed. More than a hundred years ago, Richard 

 Bache, an Englishman who married the only daughter of Benjamin 

 Franklin, imported from England both pheasants and partridges, 

 which he liberated on his estate in New Jersey, on the Delaware 

 River near where the town of Beverly now stands. But although ho 

 provided both shelter and food for them, the birds had all disap- 

 peared by the following spring. A second attempt was made early in 

 the nineteenth century by the owner of a New Jersey estate situated 

 between the Hackensack meadows and the Passaic River, opposite 

 Belleville. A park was fenced and stocked with deer and English 

 pheasants, but despite feeding and careful protection these birds like- 

 wise disappeared during the winter. These initial importations were 

 followed by similar attempts to stock private preserves, but met with 



