ELLIOT'S BARRED-BACKED PHEASANT 19:^ 



bird's only way of escape. The pheasant, however, unquestionably had his own good 

 reasons for his reversed position. As I slipped away, the grave was beginning to be 

 silvered by the moon, and I left the living bird and the carven phoenix side by side. 



A correspondent living near Mokanshan, Chekiang, writes me that in that vicinity 

 the natives have no guns and do little trapping, but locate the roosts of pheasants and go 

 out in crowds armed with clubs and kill the birds sitting or flying, occasionally getting 

 an Elliot Pheasant by this crude, barbarous method.. 



The half-hearted battle which I have related as taking place between an Elliot and 

 a ring-neck cock is the only association observed between the former and any other bird 

 or animal. Elliot's Pheasants seem to keep to themselves, as independent as they 

 are wary. 



Our knowledge of the home life of Elliot's Pheasant is confined to observations on 

 captive birds. Its relation to mankind may be summed up in the birds roosting on his 

 graves, making an occasional meal from his rice-fields, and being in return trapped and 

 eaten. It is too rare and wary a bird to figure often in the menu of a Chinese farmer, 

 and unless its range extends well into Kiangsi its future as a wild bird cannot be said to 

 be hopeful. 



In the height of the courtship season these birds beat the air with their wings much 

 like the silver pheasant. The note following this is a rapidly uttered cock-cock-cock- 

 cock-cock ! When picking up grain the cock will often call the hen in a low voice, and, 

 as she approaches, will spread his tail and flatten the plumage generally in her direction, 

 the wattles meanwhile swelling appreciably. 



CAPTIVITY 



P^re David, in 1874, brought the first living specimens of Elliot's Pheasants to 

 Europe, and deposited them in the Jardin des Plantes. Here they thrived and bred, 

 and eight years later a trio of young birds was purchased by the London Zoological 

 Society. Since then they have been bred in many zoological gardens and by private 

 individuals, and are almost always to be found offered for sale by the larger dealers. 

 Their fecundity in captivity is very encouraging, and while they do not seem to adapt 

 themselves very well to acclimatization on large estates, yet it is probable that, after they 

 are exterminated in the wild state, the species may be perpetuated in captivity. They 

 seldom become really tame, and must be treated with especial care as regards any sudden 

 alarm, as at such a time all restraint is forgotten and the birds dash about wildly. 



In this country Elliot's Pheasants begin to lay in late March or early April, and the 

 average number of eggs to each hen is ten or eleven. The birds do better if paired 

 singly, indicating a feral monogamy, and while the hen is sitting the cock remains 

 constantly in the vicinity of the nest. The incubation is from twenty-four to twenty- 

 five days. Three out of four hens which I have observed for several successive years 

 have built quite substantial nests of straw, bringing it from a distance of several yards 

 and arranging it in a hollow which they had scraped out with beak and claws in the 

 ground, under the shelter of an evergreen tree. 



The eggs are broad ovals, with considerable gloss. They vary from creamy white 

 to a dull salmon colour, often with tiny white dots of lime in the deeper pores of the 

 shell. They measure 33 mm. in breadth by 42 in length. 



VOL. HI c c 



