256 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



THE MANCI1U;IAN I \kl|i llil \--\\ 

 A very large pheasant with sombre plumage. 



known of its habits. Its home is in Siam and 

 Cochin China, and natives bring specimens and 

 skins into Bangkok. 



High up among the wooded mountains of China 

 and Thibet the great Manchurian Eared Pheasant 

 makes its home. Unhke most of its aUies it soon 

 becomes tame in captivity, and, at the sudden 

 intrusion of a keeper, instead of the only too 

 frequent custom of whirring against the wires, this 

 bird will often dispute the man's right to the run- 

 way. 



The name Eared is an apt one; for the white ear 

 coverts are long and brushed back of the head in a 

 most characteristic way. Unlike the majority of 

 pheasants the plumage is alike in both sexes. The 

 Chinamen know the bird as Hoke, and for years 

 have killed it in great numbers for food. This fact, 

 together with the destruction of the forests which it 

 inhabits, bids fair to result in its total extermination 

 within a short time. 



There is a genus of pheasants called Gennaeus, 

 which contains some sixteen species, of which five 

 are on exhibition in the new Aviary. These are 

 the Black-backed, Anderson, Lineated, Swinhoe 

 and Silver. The latter is the one most commonly 



seen in captivity and it is also the most striking in 

 color, — on the upper parts pure white, pencilled with 

 the finest of black lines, while the crest and all the 

 feathers beneath the body are merged into a mono- 

 chrome of inky blackness. 



This is another pheasant which is becoming very 

 rare m a state of nature and as yet no one has dis- 

 covered its feral habits of life. In the spring of the 

 year the male Silver Pheasants have a habit of 

 standing upright and vibrating the wings rapidly for 

 fifteen or twenty seconds at a time, producing a 

 loud, singing or whirring sound. The wings 

 describe an arc of about seventy degrees, from a 

 line parallel to that of the back, down almost to the 

 feathers of the sides. It is interesting to compare 

 this with the recently pictured drumming of the 

 Ruffed Grouse ("Country Calendar," November, 

 1905). The males of this species are strong and 

 pugnacious and wiU occasionaUy kill other pheasants 

 which chance to be confined with them. 



The bird which we know as the English, or 

 Common, Pheasant, is found in a wild state only 

 in Turkey and Greece and parts of the surrounding 

 region, but it has been introduced into most 

 countries in Europe. In England, however, pure 



