226 EXPEDITION TO JAPAN. 



" On one of my excursions, alluded to in the preceding notes, I came very suddenly upon 

 another species of pheasant, of very beautiful colors and with a very long tail. Being in the 

 midst of briars and in an inconvenient position, I missed him, or, at least, did not injure him 

 further than to shoot off his two long tail-feathers. 



"Returning on board in the evening, I found that our kind and revered chaplain, the Rev. 

 George Jones, had purchased a pheasant of the same kind from a Japanese root-digger in the 

 hills. It was not wounded or otherwise injured, and seemed to have been either caught in a 

 trap or found dead. To my inquiries of the Japanese Dutch interpreter whether those birds 

 were ever hunted, I could obtain but evasive answers ; but if, however, such is the case, the 

 right is undoubtedly reserved to the princes and nobility. 



"It appears that both these kinds of pheasants inhabit similar localities, and are abundant 

 over the southern and the middle parts of the island of Niphon, for even during my rambles in 

 the vicinity of Yokuhania, in the bay of Yeddo, I could hear their calls in the little thickets 

 and woods scattered over the country." 



For the following note on the bird now before us and the preceding species, we are indebted 

 to the kindness of Joseph Wilson, jr., M. D., of the United States Navy, who was attached as 

 surgeon to the squadron of the expedition : 



' ' Our acquaintance with the pheasants of Japan began soon after our arrival at Simoda, or 

 about the middle of April, 1854. A Japanese brought to the landing-place a young bird, 

 which, with the dark tips on his downy covering and his frequently repeated peet-peet, might 

 have been mistaken for a young turkey, but for his diminutive size. This interesting little 

 fellow had been obtained by hatching an egg of a wild pheasant, obtained in the hills, under a 

 domestic fowl. 



"A few days after this, a male pheasant in full plumage was brought to the same place, 

 dead but uninjured, and evidently but very recently killed. The golden brilliancy of this bird's 

 plumage is probably not exceeded by any object in nature, and is quite equal in lustre to the 

 most brilliant markings of the humming birds or the most highly burnished metal. This 

 splendid coloring covers the whole body of the bird, merely shaded with a little copper-red 

 about the tips and margins of the feathers, so as to show the lance head form of the feathers. 

 This specimen was taken on board the flag-ship Independence and preserved. 



" The specimen of the other species that I saw was shot by Mr. Heine, who made a very beau- 

 tiful painting of it. The two birds are found in the same localities and seem to be similar in 

 habits. 



' ' The Japanese system of agriculture, although very minute and appropriating all available 

 land to some useful purpose, yet affords abundant shelter for the native fauna. Scarcely any 

 land is tilled, except such as can be watered, so that the tops of hills and large portions of 

 mountainous and precipitous places are appropriated to the growth of timber, or left covered 

 with the primitive forest. These wooded districts afford shelter for wild hogs, foxes and rac- 

 coons, (the skins of which were seen,) as well as for the pheasants, and they all descend in turn 

 to plunder the crops or steal the chickens in the valleys. During the first part of our stay at 

 Simoda, the cultivated fields afforded no food for the pheasants. The natives told us they were 

 plenty in the hills, but no one was willing to undertake to show them, and several rambles 

 through the bushes, where these birds were supposed to feed, ended in disappointment. Once 

 only, I had a glimpse of a brood of young ones, near a hut in the mountains, but they imme- 

 diately disappeared by running very rapidly. Perhaps one reason of our want of success is to be 



