SCINTILLATING COPPER PHEASANT 165 



never heard of them complained of as working injury to crops. Although the Copper 

 birds range much higher than the green pheasants, and in general are a mountain- 

 loving species, yet where there is a moderate amount of cultivation, even on the 

 coast, these birds may be found at sea-level closely associated with the true 

 Phasianus. 



Japanese crops as a whole are those requiring an abundance of water, or even, in 

 the case of rice, an actual periodical flooding. Thus, although every inch of available 

 land is appropriated, and has been for generations, yet on rocky slopes, and on the 

 tops of hills and mountains, the forests have been carefully conserved in startling 

 contrast to the miles of barren wastes in China. In these primitive isolated or narrowly 

 linear tracts the native fauna still holds its own, often greatly to the trouble and loss 

 of the farmers in the neighbouring valleys. Here the Copper Pheasants make their 

 home, and here they must often be subjected to severity of weather, especially in the 

 northern parts of Honda. As a result the birds in winter are forced to descend to lower 

 levels, and at this season may sometimes actually be found to outnumber the green 

 pheasants at the lower levels. In the spring the Copper birds again ascend to breed 

 among the pines and bamboos of the mountains. 



In more sheltered parts of the country the pheasants are decidedly resident, and 

 throughout the year, where not shot or persecuted, may be found in relatively constant 

 numbers in the same coverts or on the same valley slope. The birds are very generally 

 distributed, and while not abundant everywhere, yet in suitable cover, where one is seen 

 or heard, there will in all probability be found others. 



Copper Pheasants are not especially sociable birds, and almost never associate in 

 true flocks, except where there is a temporary enforced assemblage for purposes of 

 feeding. The young remain with their mother throughout the winter long after they 

 have acquired adult plumage. 



In comparison with the green pheasant the Coppers are extremely silent birds. In 

 all the accounts thus far written, the notes of the former bird have been accredited to the 

 latter. Kiji is the native name for versicolor, the green bird, and is based on the broken 

 crow, which is so similar to that of the common or ring-necked pheasant. The Copper 

 Pheasant, as far as I could ascertain, crows only during the mating season, and then in 

 the morning and evening. 



The gait of these birds is not especially pleasing. As I have watched them in a 

 wild state, their carriage seemed to have less grace than that of more short-tailed species. 

 So wary are they, however, that even in captivity one can seldom see them walking with 

 perfect freedom — they are almost always partly crouching or swiftly running. Their 

 flight is much stronger and more sustained than that of the green pheasant, and serves 

 to carry them across any valley, however wide, or in one burst of speed from high up on 

 a mountain-side to the heart of the valley far below. 



The food is of the usually varied character. I have observed earth-worms, small 

 molluscs, insects of almost all orders, and other animal food composing perhaps one- 

 third of their total diet, while berries, grain, acorns, nuts, seeds, fern-tops, tender leaves, 

 moss, and the petals of flowers are all eaten in quantities, the latter occasionally filling 

 the crop to the exclusion of all else. Both sexes scratch vigorously in the earth, but with 

 no system, even where grubs and other food are abundant, digging shallow holes here 



