GOLDEN PHEASANT ii 



his eye as close to her head as possible. The broadside he offers causes his body to 

 become flattened and distorted and as symmetrical as he can make it. The wing toward 

 her is lowered, the opposite one raised, only slightly, however, and but little of the 

 irregularly mottled primaries is visible, while the purple secondaries are widely spread. 

 The chief function of the wing movement is to leave bare and flattened the expanse of 

 golden back and rump, the wing of the farther side aiding materially in pushing up the 

 gold and scarlet feathers of that side. The tail is slanted rather than spread, the scarlet 

 tail-coverts becoming very conspicuous. The breast is puffed out, but even so the 

 scarlet enters but slightly into the exhibition. It is the display of the dorsal colours and 

 patterns which is the effort of the bird. The green mantle is spread and flattened, but 

 the manipulation of the cape is the grand feature. This I have already described, the 

 entire cape being drawn over to the display side. 



Simultaneously with the completion of this movement, the bird utters a sharp hiss, 

 much like the hiss of a snake, through the wide-opened beak, the beak being wholly 

 concealed at the time behind the anterior arm of the semicircular ruff. If the hen stops 

 feeding and remains quiet, the cock holds his position without a tremor until she moves 

 Usually, especially early in the courtship season, she either runs a few steps or turns away. 

 Instantly the cock relaxes, the plumage returns to its normal position and he turns and 

 makes a second optical onslaught, this time perhaps with the opposite side. His 

 object is always to get directly in the line of vision of the hen. I have seen a hen turn 

 her head slightly, and the cock, instead of relaxing, would stretch to his utmost limit, 

 twisting and bending his body so as to keep in her sight. There is thus no moment of 

 blindness at the height of ecstasy, as in many of the grouse. His pupil contracts at 

 the supreme moment, until it becomes a mere pin-point of black, but he is fully alive to 

 every movement of the hen. 



More aggravating to our eyes is the behaviour of an old hen early in the season, 

 when two or three males are curveting and posing about her. She absolutely ignores 

 their existence, not even turning away, but looking through and beyond them, paying 

 not the slightest attention, going on picking up food or scratching as if she were 

 wholly alone. 



As the excitement increases the males become more and more active, and before 

 long two will make a dash at the same instant and cross each other's path. Then 

 all display is cast aside, ruffs are ensheathed and with lowered beaks they face one 

 another, beginning a series of lightning-like strokes with spurs and beak which, if 

 persisted in, sooner or later lays low one of the combatants. In many cases the spurs 

 are so poorly developed that the beak alone is brought into action. The final pecking to 

 death is very unlovely, and shows what our admiration for the beauty of the display 

 tempts us to forget, that the whole affair is one of life and death, not only for the 

 contestants, but for the race of Golden Pheasants itself. Next to the preservation of self 

 by the daily search for food and avoidance of danger, this is the one important thing in 

 the whole life of these splendid birds. 



There is no record of the nest or eggs of a wild Golden Pheasant. An intelligent 

 Chinaman told me he had found one on the ground with eight eggs. In captivity when 

 the hens are allowed considerable freedom and make their own nests they lay from 

 six to twelve eggs before beginning to sit. The excessive number laid by birds which 



