THE GOLDEN PHEASANT 



They call me the Golden 

 Pheasant, because I have a 

 golden crest. It is like a king's 

 crown. Don't you think my 

 dress is beautiful enough for a 

 king ? 



See the large ruff around my 

 neck. I can raise and lower 

 it as I please. 



I am a very large bird. I 

 am fourteen inches tall and 

 twenty-eight inches long. I 

 can step right over your little 

 robins and meadow larks and 

 blue jays and not touch them. 



QJ 



(^ HE well-known Chinese Pheas- 

 ant, which we have named 

 the Golden Pheasant, as well 

 as its more sober-colored 

 cousin, the Silver Pheasant, has its 

 home in Eastern Asia. 



China is pre-eminently the land of 

 Pheasants; for, besides those just men- 

 tioned, several other species of the 

 same family are found there. Japan 

 comes next to China as a pheasant 

 country and there are some in India. 



In China the Golden Pheasant is a 

 great favorite, not only for its splendid 

 plumage and elegant form, but for the 

 excellence of its flesh, which is said to 

 surpass even that of the common 

 pheasant. It has been introduced into 

 Europe, but is fitted only for the aviary. 



For purposes of the table it is not 

 likely to come into general use, as 



Sometimes people get some of 

 our eggs and put them under 

 an old hen. By and by little 

 pheasants hatch out, and the 

 hen is very good to them. She 

 watches over them and feeds 

 them, but they do not wish to 

 stay with her, they like their 

 wild life. If they are not well 

 fed they will fly away. 



I have a wife. Her feathers 

 are beginning to grow like mine. 

 In a few years she will look as I 

 do. We like to have our nests 

 by a fallen tree. 



there are great difficulties in the way 

 of breeding it in sufficient numbers, 

 and one feels a natural repugnance to 

 the killing of so beautiful a bird 

 for the sake of eating it. The 

 magnificent colors belong only to the 

 male, the female being reddish brown, 

 spotted and marked with a darker hue. 

 The tail of the female is short. The 

 statement is made, Uowever, that some 

 hens kept for six years by Lady Essex 

 gradually assumed an attire like that 

 of the males. 



Fly-fishers highly esteem the crest 

 and feathers on the back of the neck 

 of the male, as many of the artificial 

 baits owe their chief beauty to the 

 Golden Pheasant. 



According to Latham, it is called 

 by the Chinese Keuki, or Keukee, a 

 word which means gold flower fowl. 



"A merry welcome to thee, glittering bird ! 

 Lover of summer flowers and sunny things ! 

 A night hath passed since my young buds have heard 



The music of thy rainbow-colored wings — 

 Wings that flash spangles out where'er they quiver, 

 Like sunlight rushing o'er a river." 



12 



