REEVES’S PHEASANT. 111 
The late Mr. J. J. Stone, to whom naturalists are so much indebted for his 
introduction of this and other splendid pheasants, was of opinion that the value of 
Reeves’s pheasant in this country rests mainly upon its size and strength of flight, 
making it the prince of game birds for our woods. In a communication to me on 
the subject, he wrote :—“ The point I aim at is to induce the large landed proprietors 
and game preservers to introduce the Reeves’s pheasant into their coverts, believing 
that it will (from its wild character) afford the best sport of all the pheasants, and 
from its size and the magnificence of its plumage it must be a desirable addition 
to our list of game birds. I want to see Reeves’s pheasant common on the dinner 
table; and there is no reason why it should not be so in a few years, seeing that 
it is now being bred freely in Belgium, and may be purchased there at about the 
price which the Versicolor still commands, though much longer introduced into 
Europe.” Several attempts have been made to introduce this most noble of all the 
true pheasants into our coverts. 
Lord Lilford, writing in March, 1881, gives me the following valuable informa- 
tion :—“T have kept several in pens, and found them very uncertain layers, although 
one season my hen birds laid an average of twenty eggs, apiece, from which a very 
good proportion of young birds were hatched out. My impression is that these birds 
lay best—at all events in captivity—at about their third or fourth year. My 
gamekeeper, who has had charge of them, assures me that the young birds are 
very hardy and easy to rear. I have in Northamptonshire (the county in which I 
have tried these birds) no very large extent of woodlands of my own, and cannot 
therefore tell you much of their habits in a wild state, as they are very much given 
to roaming to great distances, and a good many have fallen victims in my neighbours’ 
woods, besides the large percentage that may be always allowed in a foxhunting 
country. They have certainly crossed, though not abundantly, with the common 
pheasant. The male hybrid of the first cross isa most splendid bird. Reeves’s 
pheasant is a very wild, shy bird, very quick on the wing, somewhat given to 
go back if possible, but quickly attains a good height in the air, giving good 
rocketing shots. I found them most excellent for the table—in my opinion far 
superior to the common pheasant. I believe, from what I have seen and heard of 
this species, that for real success with them in this country a wide range of hill 
coverts would be most eligible. I believe that Sir Dudley Coutts Majoribanks has 
had great success with Reeves’s pheasants in Inverness-shire.” I am informed that 
as many as sixty Reeves’s have been shot in these coverts in a single season. 
Mr. J. Mayes, head keeper to the Maharajah Dhuleep Sing, writing from 
Elvedon, in 1877, stated:—‘‘I have bred the Reeves’s pheasant for the last five 
or six years, rearing them by hand, and have had pretty good luck with them the 
last two years, having succeeded in rearing about sixty in the two seasons; but I 
find they are much healthier turned out than when penned up. (The soil here is 
