DISTRIBUTION IN EUROPE, NEW ZEALAND, ETC. 93 
On the continent of Europe the pheasant is widely diffused throughout almost 
all the congenial localities in the south and central portions, where any effort is 
made in favour of its protection. In Scandinavia it has only recently been 
successfully introduced; in 1867 we were informed by Mr. L. Lloyd, in his “ Game 
Birds of Sweden and Norway,’’ that it is not found, although attempts on a large 
scale were made to introduce it by the late King Oscar; but from the severity of 
the climate, and from the country swarming with vermin and birds of prey of all 
sorts, the experiment, in Mr. Lloyd’s opinion, was not likely to be attended with 
success. Since that date the attempt has been successfully made by Mr. Oscar 
Dickson, who, in 1878, reared seven or eight hundred birds; these have done well, 
for, in the Morgenblad of November 10, 1877, it is recorded that “ Mr. Oscar 
Dickson and party shot in one day, on his property Bokedal, in Sweden, ninety 
pheasants, one eer, one hare, and one woodcock. There were five guns.’ And the 
same journal mentions that a brace of pheasants lived at full liberty on an estate 
in the neighbourhood of Christiania during the winter of 1876-7 without being fed 
or taken care of, and that they hatched in the summer of 1877, and reared four 
full-grown young ones. A brace more were let loose early in the spring of the 
same year, and also hatched and reared in the open. The first brace escaped from 
a pen, and nobody knew what had become of them. It was supposed that they 
were either frozen to death during the severe winter, had died of starvation, or had 
fallen an easy prey to foxes, cats, or hawks. But they survived, and found both 
shelter and food for themselves. 
In New Zealand, the Great Britain of the southern hemisphere, the introduc- 
tion of the pheasant has been a great success; so much so, that in a single season, 
that of 1871, six thousand birds were bagged in the immediate neighbourhood of the 
city of Auckland. Pheasants were first introduced into the province of Auckland 
about twenty years since, seven males and two females, the only survivors of two 
dozen shipped in China, comprising the original stock of the Chinese species. At 
the same time a number of the common species were liberated in another part of 
the colony. These were supplemented by six more Chinese birds in 1856. Both 
species have multiplied exceedingly. 
The Chinese pheasant was also introduced by the Portuguese into the island 
of St. Helena in the year 1518, and it is stated to have increased in‘ numbers to 
a very considerable extent; but we are informed by Mr. Elliott that the present 
representatives of the original stock differ somewhat from their ancestors, both in 
the colour and markings of the plumage, the effect of the change of climate acting 
on the bird during many generations. 
In the countries nearest to the locality from whence the common pheasant 
is supposed to have been derived, it is not, strange to say, abundant; thus the 
Rey. H. B. Tristram informs us that it does not appear to be known in Syria. 
