EASTERN CHINESE RING-NECKED PHEASANT 127 



plumage at the approach of a hawk, or seek it more slowly when a cold wind chills them, 

 or the dusk of early night closes down. 



Among the worst enemies of the Ring-necked pheasants are the civet cats, all 

 species working havoc among the birds. So quietly do the animals make their way and 

 so suddenly is their attack launched that even the wariest cock bird seldom escapes. 

 Foxes, racoon dogs and weasels are almost as dangerous, and they will destroy eggs 

 as well as sitting birds. Wild cats have been recorded as killing pheasants, but young 

 hares seem to be their favourite article of diet. Among the hawks, kestrels are to be 

 numbered as especially dangerous to young pheasants, while eagles and owls take toll 

 from the covies of adult birds. 



The necessity for the large, often double broods is probably increased by the never- 

 ceasing raids of great black rats and of crows. Both of these creatures hunt in couples 

 or larger numbers, and both are bold and powerful enough occasionally to drive a 

 pheasant hen from her eggs, especially if she is a young bird with her first nest. 

 Rodents and crows then rush in and seize the eggs, the rats carrying them off in their 

 mouths and the birds impaling them on their beaks. In a few minutes all the hopes of 

 that pheasant home are blasted. Magpies fulfil a double role, valuable at times as 

 friends, as we shall later see, and yet prone to temptation when a nestful of eggs is 

 exposed. 



The Chinese have a delightful belief in a crowing snake which they call She-kung- 

 Chiao, with a head like the scarlet skin of a turkey. The snake is supposed not to crawl, 

 but to gather itself together and spring ahead with successive leaps. As it progresses, 

 it utters a crow so like that of the cock Ring-neck that the bird is attracted by its 

 supposed challenge, and when sufficiently near, is seized and killed. The Chinese are 

 in mortal fear of this marvel, and when an unusual pheasant's crow is heard in a 

 certain place, which they attribute to the reptile, nothing will induce them to 

 approach. 



While hardly to be classed as a friend, yet wild pheasants may often be seen feeding 

 in close proximity to native dogs, and about farm-houses the two may be seen together 

 with no signs of unfriendliness. The value of this association may possibly lie in the 

 comparative absence of vermin, such as rats and weasels, where dogs are abundant. 

 Magpies, however unconsciously, do the pheasants good turns, and many a shot have I 

 missed, when stalking birds, by having one or a flock of magpies discover me, and lift 

 their raucous voices to heaven, and to the ears of the pheasants. 



Domestic fowls as well as pheasants are guarded by these chattering birds, and the 

 Chinese housewife will often rush out of the house and bang loudly on a gong when she 

 hears their chorus, thus summoning the flocks of fowls to safety, and alarming the 

 approaching civet cat. The magpies flutter from bush to bush ahead of the creature 

 they have discovered, occasionally barging down at him with an uproar of chattering, 

 and making his life miserable until he succeeds in slinking away out of sight. The 

 hunter fares no better when he has been unfortunate enough to attract the attention of 

 a flock of these black-and-white busybodies. 



There are laws, and very strict ones in their wording, in the Chinese code, for the 

 protection of game-birds and animals. Some of these laws date from the time of the 

 great Kublai Khan. Like most of the excellent laws of China, they are conspicuous 



