THE GOLDEN PHEASANT. 213 



with great rapidity if well and frequently fed on custard, 

 boiled eggs, good cheese — all chopped fine — and mixed with 

 bruised hemp and canary seed. The maggots produced in 

 flesh from the blow-fly will tend very greatly to their rapid 

 growth. I am perfectly aware that ants' eggs are preferable, 

 but when these are not available maggots will be found an 

 excellent substitute, and should be given daily till the poults 

 are somewhat grown. Wheat, hemp, and barley are the 

 best food for the old stock. It is somewhat singular that 

 neither variety will agree comfortably Avith the common 

 pheasants in a Avood ; notwithstanding, I have seen the 

 hybrids produced between these birds and the common 

 pheasants. They are very beautiful, being of a strikingly 

 rich auburn, shading into every variety of gold colour ; but 

 they were invariably unprolific, and sought ever}' possible 

 opportunity to evince their pugnacity to all other birds 

 confined with them. 



'' Golden Pheasants will endure ever}- severity of our 

 climate. Some years since I gave away some eggs, from 

 which birds were hatched and turned loose in a large 

 plantation ; they bred freely the ensuing year, and well 

 stocked the preserve ; the year folloAving some withdrew 

 to a covert at some considerable distance, driving away the 

 common pheasants and taking possession of the whole. Some 

 Golden Pheasants' eggs, which I forwarded as a present to 

 a friend whose preserves are among the largest in the 

 kingdom, were hatched very early last season and turned 

 loose ; these bore all the rigours of winter as well as any 

 others, but in the spring began to show a decided aversion 

 to their felloAvs of more sombre hue." 



Mr. HcAvitt further stated that the sexes in the chicks 

 were easily distinguished, the eyes of the cocks being light, 

 those of the hens deep hazel. 



Golden Pheasants that have escaped to the coverts and 

 been shot, are found when cooked to be of very delicate 

 flavour. These escaped birds will sometimes breed with the 



