ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



257 



THE GOLDEN PHEASANT. 



One of the varieties most comnionlv seen in collections. 



English Pheasants are rare, most of the individuals 

 beinfi; crossed with the Chinese Ring-necked species, 

 and showing more or less traces of a necklace of 

 white feathers. The male birds fight fiercely for 

 the hens, but after the complement of eggs is 

 deposited, the females are deserted by their mates 

 and left to hatch and rear the chicks alone. 



Both English and Ring-necked Pheasants have 

 been introduced with success into various portions 

 of the United States. On Gardiner's Island, at 

 the e.xtreme eastern end of Long Island, one may 

 flush twenty or thirty pheasants from a single 

 meadow; and when a hen bursts from the grass, 

 careful search will often reveal six or eight tiny 

 brown chicks crouching close to the ground. 



There are about twenty species of true pheasants 

 belonging to the genus Phasianus, all of which 

 inhabit Asia. Several of these are on e.\hibition. 

 The Versicolor, or Japanese Pheasant, and the 

 Soemmering are different in color from the 

 English, but all are built along the same lines, the 

 males having a long, graceful tail. ^lost magnifi- 

 cent of all is the Reeves, clad in black, white and 

 old gold, arranged in harmonious patterns. The 

 tail sometimes reaches a length of five feet. 



These birds are very difficult to hunt in the 

 high mountain fastnesses in which they live, and 

 even where they are reared artificially on game 



preserves, their great power of running and their 

 strong flight render them safe, e.xcept from an 

 experienced sportsman. It is said they will .some- 

 times travel thirty miles without a break, — a 

 remarkable performance for game-birds, whose 

 short rounded wings and hea\'y bodies usually 

 preclude all long distance flights. Wlien twenty or 

 thirty of these great brilliant birds burst with a 

 roar of wings from the undergrowth, the sight must 

 indeed be a magnificent one. 



The Golden and Lady .Amherst Pheasants are 

 alike in general contour of body, and both have 

 conspicuous ruffs or capes, although their colors 

 are very different. In the former the mantle is 

 brilliant orange and steel blue, while in the .Amherst 

 birri the orange is replaced with white. These 

 birds live in the mountains of western China and 

 eastern Thibet, but almost nothing is known of 

 their habits in a wild state. They breed readily in 

 captivity, and are very common in collections of 

 live birds. 



The peacocks and the pheasants are to a certain 

 extent connected by the Peacock Pheasants, a small 

 group of small birds. Those in the collection are 

 brownish in general color, with most of the feathers 

 of the body, tail and wings tipped with metallic 

 green eye-like spots. A peculiarity of this bird is 

 the number of spurs on the legs, — two, three or 



