2-i PHASIANID^E. 



Golden Pheasant, PMsianus pictus, Linn. 



My friend Win. Sinclaire, Esq., having been particularly successful 

 in rearing these birds at the Falls near Belfast, I have thought that an 

 account of his mode of doing so would be desirable. He has kindly 

 contributed the following : — 



" Golden pheasants are very easily reared in confinement, and are 

 quite as hardy as any of the other pheasants, or as any of our domestic 

 fowls ; indeed I question if any of them are sooner able to provide a 

 subsistence for themselves, or to live independent of the parent bird. 

 In the several years experience I have had in the rearing of these birds, 

 I have considered them past all danger when they arrived at the age of 

 three or four weeks ; in fact, at that age, those which I brought up in 

 the garden began to leave the bantam hen which hatched them, and 

 take into the gooseberry bushes to perch at night ; and very soon 

 after, into the apple trees. I always observed that they roosted at the 

 extremity of the branches, where they were quite safe from the attacks 

 of cats or other vermin. This habit, together with their very early 

 disposition to roost at night, leads me to infer that their introduction 

 into this country as a game bird would not be difficult ; and that in 

 our large demesnes, where protected from shooters, they would become 

 very numerous. But I should imagine that they would not answer where 

 the common pheasants were already introduced, as they are shy 

 timid birds, and would be easily driven off by the other species. The 

 individuals before referred to, which were reared in the garden, con- 

 sisted of a family of six : they always remained in the garden where 

 they were regularly fed, except at the commencement of winter, when 

 they ceased roosting in the apple trees, took to a belt of Scotch firs 

 which bounded the garden on one side, and roosted in them all the 

 winter and following spring. I have seen them sitting in the trees 

 when their branches were laden with snow, but they did not seem to 

 suffer in the slightest degree from the severity of winter. About the 

 month of February they first began to wander from the garden for 

 short distances ; and as the spring advanced, finally disappeared, 

 and I never could hear of their being met with afterwards. 



" In rearing the young, I found that the very best food for them, and 

 of which they were most fond, was the larva? of the blue-bottle fly,* 



* Flesh-fly, Musca carnaria, Linn. ? W. T. 



