SCEMMERRING'S PHEASANT. 211 



pugnacious and fierce dispositions ; not only the males, but 

 frequently the females destroy each other. The want of 

 sufficient space and means of escape among bushes, shrubs, 

 and trees is no doubt the cause of many females being killed 

 when kept in confinement ; and this serious misfortune is un- 

 happily of no rare occurrence. After the cost and trouble of 

 obtaining pairs of these beautiful birds, and they have 

 recovered from their long confinement on the voyage, their 

 owner is desirous of reaping a reward by obtaining an 

 abundant supply of eggs as the birds approach the breeding 

 season, when, alas ! he finds that some disturbance has 

 occurred, the place is filled with feathers, and the female 

 bird, from which he expected so much, is found dead or 

 dying, her head scalped, her eyes picked out, or some other 

 serious injury inflicted/' 



The habits of this magnificent bird are thus described by 

 Cassin in Commodore Perry's " Expedition to the China Seas 

 and Japan, 1852-54": 



" This is undoubtedly the most beautiful of all the true 

 pheasants, and will compare in richness and brilliancy of 

 colour with almost any other species of bird. In the adult 

 male the neck and back are of a deep golden red, with a 

 metallic lustre of great beauty, but the female is exceedingly 

 plain and unpretending. 



" Like the P. versivolor, the present is only known as a 

 bird of Japan ; and but a few years have elapsed since it WP.S 

 first introduced to the attention of naturalists by the celebrated 

 Professor Temminck, well known as the most distinguished of 

 European ornithologists. It appears to inhabit the same 

 districts of country as the Versicolor, and to subsist on much 

 the same description of food ; but we regret to say that the 

 gentlemen of the expedition had no opportunity for observing 

 this species to such an extent as to enable us to make any 

 important contribution to its history. 



" Nothing having previously been published in relation to 

 this beautiful pheasant, we have exerted ourselves to obtain 



p 2 



