130 PHEASANTS ADAPTED FOR THE AVIARY. 
Consul Swinhoe states that, “This bird is found in the hills north of Pekin, 
in Mantchuria, and brought in winter to Pekin in large numbers, both alive and 
dead. It is called by the natives the Ho-ke. The feathers of this bird were 
formerly worn by Tartar warriors. I have not seen the species in its wild state.” 
Pére David informs us that these birds frequent the woods of high mountains, 
and that they subsist much more upon green vegetables, leaves of trees, and succu- 
lent roots than upon grain. In their habits they are more gregarious than 
the common pheasants, assembling together in flocks of considerable size. In 
domestication they become exceedingly tame, feeding readily from the hand. When 
at large they appear remarkably hardy; they breed when only one year old, and 
acquire their adult plumage at the first autumnal moult. 
‘They possess the very rare instinct of domestication. I have seen specimens 
at Mr. Stone’s residence in the Welsh hills as familiar as barn-door fowls. In the 
closely confined pens in our Zoological Gardens their increase has not been very 
rapid, but they have proved themselves more hardy and prolific than common 
turkeys would have been if placed under similar disadvantageous circumstances. 
Mr. Bartlett writes: “Of the Crossoptilon we have reared nine fine birds the 
second hatch, having lost by the gapes the first brood of seven.” 
By placing a young brood in a large walled-in garden, where they could 
obtain abundance of fresh vegetables and insect food, they should offer no more 
difficulty in rearing than barn-door fowls; all they would require would be custard 
and lettuce in addition to ants’ eggs, if obtainable; but fed on dry hard corn, and 
kept in amall aviaries with brick floors, success is not to be expected. 
Of the allied species, Hodgson’s Crossoptilon (C. thibetanwm), is known 
only by a single specimen in the British Museum. In this the general colour is 
bluish-white, but the crown of the head is black, the wings dark, and the tail 
black crossed with green and blue. It is a native of Thibet. 
Under the name of (C. drowynit, a species very closely allied if, indeed, it 
be not identical with the last, has been described and named by M. Verraux. It 
differs in the wings being bluish dark instead of dark brown, and in the tail being 
smaller and less highly coloured. It is probably a local race. 
The original eared pheasant described by Pallas was a slaty-blue species. 
Pallas’s specimens have long been lost, but recently, owing to the indefatigable 
exertions of Pére David, skins have been received at the Museum at Paris, and 
the original C. auwritum is now known to be perfectly distinct from the Mantchu- 
rian species, with which alone we are familiar in the living state. 
2 AROS 2 3 —$—$<— 
