ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY 

 BULLETIN 



Published by the New York Zoological Society 



Vol. XXII 



JANUARY, 1919 



Number 1 



BEEBE'S GREAT PHEASANT MONOGRAPH 



By William T. Hornaday 



AFTER everything else has been said about 

 sport in game-bird shooting, the last word 

 is that pheasant-shooting is the finest of 

 the fine. As mountain-sheep hunting is to other 

 sport with the rifle, so is the pursuit of the 

 pheasants of the world in comparison with other 

 bird-shooting. 



Of all game birds the pheasants of the world 

 are the most beautiful, and also the most diffi- 

 cult to find and to kill. Scenicallv, their haunts 

 embrace the finest and most spectacular moun- 

 tain and forest regions of the old world. It is 

 a far cry, both upward and across, from the 

 spicy, hothouse forests of tide-water Borneo to 

 the stupendous steeps and everlasting snow r s of 

 the highest Himalayas. And yet, at one extreme 

 Mr. Beebe found the wonderful Argus Pheas- 

 ant, and at the other the abyss-loving Impeyan. 



To build a Monograph of the Phasianidae 

 that will do the subject even-handed justice is a 

 task for Men. We say "build," because the 

 writing is the minor part of the work. The task 

 calls for great expenditures of money and labor, 

 perfectly synchronized with masterful ability in 

 the gathering of facts and illustrations. On one 

 hand, no amount of expense-money can avail 

 without genius expressed in terms of labor; and 

 on the other hand no flight of genius by any 

 possibility could attain more than one-quarter 

 of the way to such a goal without most generous 

 financial support. 



On one side it was Mr. William Beebe whose 

 well trained scientific mind, tireless industry, 

 skill as an explorer, and skill as a writer and 

 book-maker that rendered this monograph pos- 

 sible. On the other hand, it was the profound 

 love of birds and splendid imagination of Col. 

 Anthony R. Kuser, combined with ample re- 



sources, that brought about the union of fore- 

 sight and forces that produced the great result 

 now laid before the bird-lovers of the world. 



There are monographs and monographs. Some 

 of them are mere picture-books, with an accom- 

 paniment of brief and perfunctory text. There 

 are others that delve into scientific details of no 

 interest to any human being save the delver 

 himself. Of what kind is the Kuser-Beebe Mon- 

 ograph of the Pheasants ? Its modest binding of 

 maroon cloth does not even faintly suggest the 

 riches within. 



First of all, it is something new under the sun. 

 It pulses with life and interest, and the charm- 

 ing personal touch of the author. 



Its scope is broad, its plan is new and orig- 

 inal, and it grips the reader with a warm and 

 masterful hand. The overflowing wealth of 

 first-hand facts is a delightful surprise. It tells 

 the reader the things that he most wishes to 

 know about these strange and beautiful birds. 

 It reveals their personalities, their habits and 

 their romantic dwelling-places, their classifica- 

 tion and their geography. The science of or- 

 nithology is made fascinating, and the general 

 reader of Mr. Beebe's abundant text soon real- 

 izes that when science is written by a sympa- 

 thetic hand, it can be both understandable and 

 delightful. 



Mr. Beebe's thirty pages of "Introduction" is 

 a masterful general review of the Pheasant 

 Family as a whole. It is a treasury of scientific 

 information, and as interesting as a good novel. 

 It shows how science can be made attractive in- 

 stead of repulsive ; but it must be admitted in 

 advance that few other zoological subjects lend 

 themselves so thoroughly to this sparkling 

 treatment. This is science made available to 



