ZOOLOGICAL 
BULLETIN 
SOC LE Ty 
Published by the New York Zoological Society pe 
Votume XNIII 
MAY, 1920 
NUMBER 3 
PHEASANTS 
SILVER 
IN 
THEIR WILD HOME 
By Witi1amM Berse 
Illustrations from photographs by the Author 
ILVER Pheas- 
S ants are almost 
the commonest spe- 
cies of the family in 
captivity. They are 
hardy and_ prolific, 
and the hens will 
incubate their own 
and rear the 
young birds, when 
domestic fowls are 
not used as foster 
\ mothers. They are 
not so successful as 
introduced game birds on preserves, because of 
their tendency to remain in the vicinity of homes 
and farm lands. It is disconcerting to go out 
after Silver Pheasants and have a pair come 
into full view, look at you, and then walk in 
your direction. Shooting under such circum- 
stances has all the thrills of hunting in a 
barnyard. 
eggs 
They are beautiful birds and for once the 
scientist who named them used real imagination, 
and their specific designation of nycthemerus 
or day-and-night, does poetic justice to their 
sharply contrasted colors of white and black. 
Although so common in captivity, yet the 
Silver Pheasant is almost unknown in a wild 
state, no one has ever seen a nest or egg of 
feral birds. It ranges across Southern China, 
almost from the sea-coast in Fokien, to the 
border of Burma, where it interbreeds with the 
darker birds of the Himalayas. 
Standing on the high divide which shunts its 
eastern waters into China and its western into 
the great rivers of Burma, a great tumbled, 
irregular mass of mountains and valleys is seen 
on the Burma side. All are forest clad with 
bamboo, oak and other hard woods and it was 
here, hidden beneath that vast extent of many- 
tinted foliage, that I found pheasants which, 
from the point of view of their origin, were the 
most remarkable of their family. 
Elephants and mules were the commonest 
means of transport and [ found it necessary to 
take an escort of six Gurkhas. The Kachin 
tribes hereabouts are nominally safe, but the 
individual components of these tribes are un- 
certain quantities. As  still-hunting was my 
method of finding and observing these pheasants 
and as I always carried a .308 rifle cartridge in 
the third barrel of my gun, I worried little 
about human enemies and only twice was even 
threatened with any molestation. A few miles 
to the north, however, the wild tribes are wholly 
independent and work their pleasure upon 
strangers. 
I spent many delightful days in the study of 
these birds, glorying in the wonderful scenery 
and magnificent climate after many months of 
hot, steaming, tropical jungles. The early 
November mornings were keen and clear, and 
every valley and depression was always filled to 
overflowing with a calm, waveless lake of cloud. 
The farthest Tibetan and Yunnan peaks were 
a deeper purple than ever painter dared put to 
canvas. The sweetness of the chorus of bul- 
buls was the major theme at this hour, with a 
minor accompaniment of distant cooing doves. 
But pheasants were difficult to find in the 
morning and one might wander about for hours 
with never a glimpse. 
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