234 CLASS AVES. 



These birds pair about the end of April. When the female 

 has sufficient liberty, she attends with great assiduity to her 

 young brood. The incubation lasts twenty-six days. The 

 number of the eggs varies from eight to fourteen ; they very 

 seldom amount to eighteen. Their colour is yellowish- 

 red, often bordering on black, and they have small brown 

 points. 



This pheasant inhabits the northern regions of the vast 

 empire of China. It has been transported into almost all the 

 countries of Europe, where, with a little care, it thrives per- 

 fectly well. It is more easily tamed than the common phea- 

 sant, and its young ones are reared with less difficvdty. 



BufFon imagined that the Painted Pheasant was but a 

 variety of the common, and owed its splendid plumage to the 

 influence of a more genial climate. This opinion, which has 

 been adopted by no succeeding naturalist, is totally erroneous. 

 The painted pheasant inhabits and multiplies in the same 

 country with the common pheasant. The last is abundant in 

 the northern part of China, and preserves there the same 

 forms and colours as in Europe. In the wild state it never 

 mingles with the common pheasant. 



The painted pheasant is common enough in European 

 menageries, but not so much so as nycthemerus and torquatus. 

 It is a more delicate bird than these, and more difficult to 

 rear, though the means pursued for tliis purpose are the 

 same in all. In a state of domestication, more males are 

 generally produced than females. 



The total length of the male is two feet ten inches, or three 

 feet, the tail alone being three or four and twenty inches 

 long. The colours are sufficiently described in the text. 

 The female is rather smaller than the male. 



The food given to these pheasants generally consists of 

 rice, flax-seed, wheat, or barley ; they also eat red-cabbage, 

 grass, leaves, and fruits, especially prunes and pears. They 



