ISO A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 



the branches for some small songster, instead of to this great pheasant, measuring over 

 six feet in length. 



The Chinese trap this species in snares, and sometimes in a kind of pit, over which 

 fits a lid of brush, and when the trigger is set free this descends rapidly and crashes 

 down upon the bird, engulfing it in the pit beneath. They are occasionally seen in the 

 markets, both dead and alive, in Pekin and Hankow. Many people have praised the 

 flesh of the wild birds, esteeming it above that of the more common pheasants. 



More than once I saw tail-feathers of this bird stuck into the caps or hair of 

 Chinese, but only as an ornament and without any particular significance. The longest 

 tail-feathers are used in different parts of China as decorations in the head-gear of actors 

 when these are playing military parts. Temminck was apparently mistaken when he 

 named this bird veneratus, being under the impression that it was a sacred bird of the 

 Chinese, and it is very unlikely that it played any part whatever in the origin of the Phoenix. 



The Mongolians think, however, that the blood of the Reeves possesses extremely 

 poisonous properties. They have a belief that when Mandarins consider that their 

 rank and life are in danger, as of being put to death by order of the Emperor, 

 these officials dip a corner of a handkerchief in the blood of this bird, so that in 

 dire extremity they may commit suicide by sucking this dried blood. 



Two travellers have told me of seeing the dried bodies of these pheasants swaying 

 from a tall bamboo, wings and tail blowing in the breeze, and serving as a scarecrow to 

 frighten away other pheasants. 



The only account of the finding of the nest and eggs of Reeves's Pheasant is that 

 related to me by Dr. F. R. Clifton. He was tiger-shooting within a few days' march of 

 Ichang. One day, when out with a line of beaters trying to locate a young tiger which 

 had just made a kill, two male Reeves were flushed, one of which rose straight ahead 

 and went high up over the pines, while the other bird doubled back suddenly and shot 

 past with terrific speed, dodging the beaters and the trunks of the trees with such sharp 

 turns that the long, flowing tail-feathers seemed fairly to curl around the trunks as the 

 bird veered past. The hillside did not have a very steep slope at this point, and was 

 covered with a sparse growth of pines, varied with open spaces of grass, dwarf bamboo, 

 and occasional clumps of azaleas with blossoms, both pink and deep scarlet. 



As Clifton and his men encircled one of these azalea thickets, a large-sized bird 

 ran swiftly away through the grass, and the next moment the heavy sole of the hunter's 

 shoe crashed into the very heart of a nestful of eggs. There were seven all told, only 

 two of which survived the catastrophe, although an eighth was later found two feet away 

 from the nest. They were deposited in a mere shallow depression without any lining, 

 even dead leaves were absent, and the embryos were well formed, except in the outlying 

 tgg, which had not been incubated. 



The eggs of Reeves's Pheasant vary considerably in colour, being usually what 

 the French call mastic or putty colour, many shells, however, being olive brown or 

 olive cream. They are of a broad, blunt, oval shape, averaging 37 x 46 mm. 



CAPTIVITY AND ACCLIMATIZATION 



Long before Reeves's Pheasant had been described or even depicted in ornitho- 

 logical literature, when our knowledge of it was confined to Chinese drawings and to 



