REEVES’S PHEASANT. : 109 
superstitiously believed that the blood of the bird possesses poisonous properties, and 
that the Mandarins, when in expectation of losing their rank and being suddenly 
put to death by order of the Emperor, preserve some of it on a handkerchief in a 
dried state, on sucking which they fall down and instantly expire. 
“Mr. Beale’s first male specimen, obtained in 1808, was kept in a healthy 
state for thirteen years; after its death he endeavoured to procure others, but did not 
succeed until 1831, when four specimens were brought from the interior of China, 
and purchased by him for 130 dollars; these were, I believe, taken to England 
subsequently by Mr. Reeves.” 
The first bird of this species introduced alive into Europe was imported about 
the year 1831 by Mr. Reeves (of the firm of Dent and Co.). This specimen was a 
male. The son of this gentleman, Mr. John R. Reeves, brought a female over with 
him in 1838, and the pair were in the Zoological Gardens at the same time; but 
the male being old, they did not breed. Some cross-bred birds were reared from the 
hen, who died in 1840, and these are now in the British Museum. 
Dr. Latham, in his “General History of Birds,’’ gave a description of this 
species from a drawing in the possession of Sir J. Anstruther, and the tail feathers, 
of which he states :—“I had an opportunity of seeing a bundle of thirty or forty of 
these tail feathers, which were brought from China, and I found amongst them 
specimens of every length from 18in. to 7ft.” The species was named by Latham 
P. superbus. Temminck describes it under the title of Faisan superbe in his 
“Pigeons et Gallinacés,” published in 1813. At this date it was known to him 
only by the two central tail feathers, and the drawings of native Chinese artists. 
Subsequently, however, he obtained a skin of the male, which he figured in his 
*Planches colorieés,’ giving it the new name of P. veneratus. This plate was 
copied on a reduced scale in Jardine’s “ Naturalist’s Library,’ published in 1834. 
Dr. J. E. Gray, in his “Indian Zoology,” named the bird after the gentleman by 
whom it was introduced into England, and by this name it is now generally known. 
The successful introduction of the living birds now in England is owing to the 
combined efforts of the late Mr. John J. Stone and Mr. Walter H. Medhurst, H.M. 
Consul at Hankow. Owing to their exertions, this splendid pheasant is now firmly 
established in this country, and like the P. versicolor and P. torquatus is to be seen 
at large in our woods. 
For several years Mr. Stone made continuous efforts to obtain this and other 
new pheasants from Northern China, but with no satisfactory results, until the aid 
of Mr. Medhurst was obtained. It is mainly due to that gentleman’s thorough 
knowledge of the natives of China, and of their language, that the true habitat 
of this bird was ascertained, and an experienced Chinaman sent into the interior 
for the purpose of collecting this and other rare pheasants, of which coloured 
drawings had been supplied for his guidance. 
