INTRODUCTION INTO AMERICA. 41 



unsuitable, and they have been relinquished. An outbreak 

 of " cholera/' probably identical with our enteritis, which 

 occurred in July, 1901, conduced to this. A similar epidemic 

 broke out in 1906 in Massachusetts, but 3,000 birds were shot 

 in the succeeding open season of one month. 



In New York State rearing has not been very successful, 

 but a State game preserve has been established where breeding 

 will be resumed. In Indiana it is estimated that the stock of 

 pheasants numbers from 6,000 to 8,000. In Illinois experi- 

 ments have been conducted on a large scale, 20,000 eggs 

 being distributed, in addition to 15,000 hatched on the game 

 farm, in 1908. In Utah a stock of ring-necks, liberated in 

 1895, were reported as doing very well in 1906. In Minnesota 

 an attempt, made in 1905, to introduce pheasants was rendered 

 abortive owing to great mortality amongst the chicks. In 

 Delaware, too, the attempt ended in failure, but Kansas has 

 been more successful, 3,000 ring-necks, turned down in 1906, 

 being reported to have done well. Many have been liberated 

 in Colorado in recent years with results that are not yet 

 accurately known. 



It is possible that in many cases failure may be attributable 

 to a want of experience in the management of the birds, as 

 well as to climatic influences and the prevalence of natural 

 enemies. English gamekeepers have been employed in some 

 instances, in others American methods are adopted. On the 

 whole, the conditions that prevail in British Columbia and the 

 States of the Pacific Coast appear to be more favourable 

 to their propagation than those found east of the Rocky 

 Mountains. Thus, in Vancouver Island and some of the Gulf 

 Islands pheasants have become so numerous that complaints 

 are said to have been made of the mischief they effect in grain 

 and potato fields ; but the farmers generally speak favourably 

 of them. 



In Oregon, too, they have spread and multiplied so well 

 that complaints are made of their depredations in the grain 

 fields. The reports of the residents to the official inquiries 



