THE AMHERST PHEASANT, 123 
degree of longitude E.: the heat of these places is very great as they are surrounded 
by high mountains, and with yery little vegetation. The mountains are covered 
with brambles, briars, and thorns, and also with grassy places; in these spots the 
Amherst Pheasant is met with in abundance. It is an error to think that, like 
other pheasants, it is met with in the forests; I have never found it there, and as 
in the neighbourhood of Ta-lin-pin it only exists where there are no forests, I 
doubt very much if bushy tracts are to its liking. The more rocky and desolate 
the mountains, the more certain are you to find the Flower Pheasants, in companies 
composed of from twenty to thirty individuals. 
“The habits and economy of the Amherst Pheasant naturally accord with 
the places in which it delights; it is an extremely wild bird. Last year I kept 
one of these pheasants in a stable covered with straw; it hid itself so frequently 
and so well that once I was more than fifteen days in the belief that it was dead. 
_ 1 fed it with bread and rice, and it became very fat. If this bird should be 
introduced into Europe, it would be useless to endeavour to make it comfortable ; 
if it has not in the aviary some place where, at the least noise, it can hide itself, 
otherwise I doubt if it can be preserved. I think, from the temperature of the 
mountains it inhabits, that the climate of France would be suitable for the Flower 
Pheasant. These particulars respecting the Lady Amherst’s Pheasants are perfectly 
exact, since I have myself frequently hunted, captured, fed, and raised them. They 
would increase easily in Europe, provided they were not too much exposed to the 
heat of the sun, and that shrubs were grown in the aviary to allow their hiding 
when frightened.” 
The breeding of the Amherst Pheasant offers no difficulty, provided it be 
attempted under natural conditions, and not in the close pens, and stifling, vermin- 
haunted hatching houses that are characteristic of some of our zoological collections. 
Not only has the pure race been increased, but the males have also bred freely 
with the hens of the gold pheasant (Zhawmalea picta), and produced hybrids which 
are of surpassing beauty. At the sale of the surplus stock in the Zoological 
Gardens at Antwerp in 1872, a single male hybrid of this kind, in full plumage, 
realised 35/., and I have recently had the opportunity of seeing four specimens of 
this cross-breed in the possession of Mr. Edward Bartlett, These combine in a 
remarkable degree the most attractive features of the two species from which they 
are derived, and are unquestionably far more beautiful than either; compared with 
them the pure bred Amherst looks pallid, and the Gold pheasant wants the 
beautiful contrast of the white neck tippet and the brilliancy of the green and blue. 
The whole of the four specimens so closely resemble one another that they 
ean scarcely be distinguished. In all the crest is fully developed, being larger than 
in either parent species; in colour it is a brilliant scarlet orange. The neck tippet 
is white, margined with brilliant dark green, resembling that of the Amherst, but 
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