1646 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



I have never seen any farms for the breeding of 

 pheasants in this province, and I never have heard 

 it said by anyone that they exist. 



Xot having been in Yunnan for nine years, I have 

 consulted some of the oldest residents, among others 

 Father Maire, Catholic missionary, who has been in 

 this province more than thirty years, and has resided 

 and traveled in numerous regions of Yunnan. He 

 also has not seen any farms where the breeding of 

 pheasants is carried on, and never has heard estab- 

 lishments of this kind spoken of. 



Dr. Legendre, a French traveler, whose name you 

 perhaps know, was at Mongtseu at the time of the 

 receipt of your letter. He has many times traveled 

 through Yunnan and Seutchoan and has gone as far 

 as the borders of Thibet. I showed him your letter 

 and he gave me the same answer as Father Maire. 



1 have often seen in the markets live pheasants 

 (silver or golden, and argus pheasants), but these 

 birds always had been taken witli a trap or a net. 

 They were very savage and sought to escape from 

 the bamboo baskets in which they were confined. 

 These birds have never been domesticated, for it is 

 very difficult to keep them in a coop. One would 

 lose the half of them. Even the golden pheasants 

 refuse to eat; grow thin and die. 



Perhaps that which has given rise to the fable of 

 "pheasant farms" is the habit of two tribes, Lolos 

 Sa-Gni and Ahi, which inhabit the mountain in the 

 region of I.ounan (above Mile, east of Yunnan), who 

 keep some male pheasants which they utilize as de- 

 coys. They remove sonic- feathers from these pheas- 

 ants, try to tame them, and in the spring they carry 

 them into the fields to attract the hen pheasants. In 

 this region, Father Maire tells me. the peasants cul- 

 tivate maize and buckwheat, and the pheasants are 

 very numerous. 



A pheasant which has been used as a decoy may, 

 if it is tamed, be sold for six silver tails (about 13 

 Mexican piastres). Then the price of a pheasant for 

 the table is. in Mongtseu, from 30 to 40 piastres. In 

 the mountain the prices are less high. I have bought 

 at Mongtseu a pair of beautiful living argus pheas- 

 ants for SO piastres. (All the prices given herein are 

 in Mexican piastres.) 



The exportation of these birds alive, and of 

 their skins, is strictly prohibited, both in China as 

 well as in Indo-China. It requires a special author- 

 ization to export any pairs of live pheasants. Their 

 skins are confiscated. In Indo-China even the ped- 

 dling of silver and argus pheasants is forbidden, ex- 

 cept for propagation. 



The French and Chinese authorities have acted very 

 wisely in forbidding trade in the skins of pheasants, 

 for the sale of them has encouraged the natives to 

 slaughter great quantities, and they would rapidly 

 have annihilated these magnificent species of birds. 

 This exportation was carried on chiefly by the people 

 of Canton. I know that the Chinese Custom House 

 officer seized, about three years ago, a case contain- 

 ing several thousand skins dispatched to a merchant 

 in Canton. 



Evidently, if the domestication and breeding of 

 pheasants had been an accomplished fact, the French 

 and Chinese " onld not have prohibited the exporta- 

 tion of these birds, or their skins. 



I am at your disposal for any further information 

 that you may wish to demand of me. and I am happy 

 to have been able to be of service to you. 



Accept. Sir. the assurance of my best sentiments. 



L. FLAYEEEE. 



P. S. — I have just had the explanation of the origin 

 of this story. Mr. Anderson, American Consul- 

 General at Hongkong, some two years ago, on the 

 strength of incorrect information, pointed out in 

 one of his reports the existence of "pheasant 

 farms" in Yunnan. 



A JUNGLE INCUBATOR 



By Lee S. Crandall 



AMONG the rhododendrons near the Jungle 

 Walk in the Zoological Park, there is a 

 heap of leaves and forest debris. It ap- 

 pears commonplace and uninteresting, but its 

 origin and purpose are not those of the conven- 

 tional rubbish pile. 



The fauna of Australia contains many curi- 

 ous forms. Its marsupial mammals, paralleling 

 in a marvelous way numerous groups of more 

 highly organized creatures, are well represented 

 in the collections of the Zoological Society. Its 

 birds, while less generally remarkable, still in- 

 clude many species of unusual habits. Two 

 groups in particular, one containing the emus 

 and cassowaries, the other the megapodes or 

 mound builders, have developed aberrant meth- 

 ods of reproduction. The emu family, with its 

 prettily striped babies, motherly father and ad- 

 vanced mother, are well known to our visitors. 

 But now we shall make the acquaintance of an 

 ultra-modern bird, whose habits might inspire 

 the imaginative humorist. Here the tendency to 

 slough off maternal duties has reached its log- 

 ical end, for nobody cares for the babies at all! 



The Encyclopedia Brittanica says that arti- 

 ficial incubation has been known to the Egyp- 

 tians and Chinese from "time immemorial." 

 That honored phrase is not chronologically ex- 

 act, but whatever the period may be, it is fairly 

 safe to say that incubators were in use before 

 the days of Confucius, and without the guiding 

 intellect of man. In the untravelled bush of 

 Australia, birds were making use of the princi- 

 ple on which the modern 10,000-egg machine is 

 founded. 



The brush turkey, the most familiar bird of 

 the megapode group, nests from September to 

 January, a period that, in the Antipodes, cor- 

 responds to our spring and summer. But this 

 nest building consists of no conventional weav- 

 ing and binding. The brush turkey's skill lies 

 rather in its feet than in its beak, and it is well 

 equipped for the work to be done. So generous 

 is its endowment, in fact, that the length of its 

 toes, coupled with the bare and highly colored 

 head and neck, led to its early description as a 

 vulture, although it is really a member of the 

 family of fowls. But these feet were fashioned 



