THE SILVER PHEASANT. 225 



the bushes in a very unexpected manner. On one occasion 

 he knocked a lady down, and on another occasion entered th& 

 drawing-room and attacked a lady who Avas sitting there.'* 



Another writer says : — " I have for many years had' a! 

 score of thetn running loose with the poultry — two cocks, one 

 an old one, the other a young one of last year, just getting 

 into full plumage ; the others are hens. In bad weather and 

 in winter they roost in the poultry house, at other times in the- 

 trees. The males are most pugnacious and jealous, fighting; 

 and bullying the fowls — so much so that I am obliged to hav&- 

 their spurs cut off — and the hens very spiteful to young 

 poultry. The others I have shut up, otherwise they would 

 fight until they killed each other. In the breeding time they 

 are shur up in large pens. 



'' I have frequently had the hens sit on and hatch tbeir 

 eggs ; when they have young ones, if nnyone goes near tliem^ 

 they act like partridges. I have seen them charge dogs and 

 drive them away. I have also seen a cock watching a fox 

 stalking him, and when the fox made his rush the bird flew 

 over him, but lost his tail. To show how severely they can 

 make these spurs tell, one of my keepers kicked at an old 

 Silver cock pheasant to drive hira away, when the bird turned 

 on him and sent his spur right through his boot. They are 

 quite as bad as peafowls in a kitchen garden ; they will eat 

 all the fruit. They are not very good biids for the table, 

 but tliey are useful as being eatable in February and March.'' 



The Silver Pheasant is a long-lived bird, even in confine- 

 ment. Mr. Thompson, in his ''Natural History of Ireland," 

 states that he has known one live twenty-one or twenty-two 

 years in captivity. 



The male, without possessing the gorgeous colouration of 

 many of the Phasianidce, is a very beautiful bird. The face is 

 entirely covered with a bright vermillion skin, which during 

 the spring becomes excessively brilliant, and is greatly- 

 increased in size, so as to almost resemble the comb and wattles- 

 of a cock ; the flowing crest is blue-black, the bill light green^ 



'4 



