X68 PHEASANTS FOM COVERTS AND AVIARIES. 



and landed in search of specimens of birds, and ttat day had 

 the good fortune to see, for the first time, the versicolor 

 pheasant. The province Idza, at the southern extremity of 

 which the port of Simoda is situated, forms a long neck of 

 land extending from the island of Niphon, in a southerly 

 direction, and is throughout mountainous, some of the 

 mountains being from 4000 to 5000 feet high. The valleys 

 are highly cultivated, presenting in the spring a most 

 luxurious landscape. The tops of the mountains and hills are 

 in some places, composed of barren rocks, and in others 

 covered with grass and shrubs, producing an abundance of 

 small berries. Between those higher regions and the fields 

 below the slopes are covered with woods, having, for the 

 greater part, such thick undergrowth that it is scarcely 

 possible to penetrate them. Following the beautiful valley, 

 at the outlet of which the town of Simoda stands, for about 

 four miles, I came to a place where the Simoda creek divides 

 into two branches. Selecting the eastern branch, I soon left 

 fields and houses behind me, and, ascending through a little 

 guUey, I emerged from the woods into the barren region. It 

 was yet early in the morning; clouds enveloped the peaks 

 and tops of the hills ; the fields and woods were silent, and 

 the distant sound of the surf from the seashore far below 

 rather increased than lessened the impression of deep solitude 

 made upon me by the strange scenery around. 



" The walk and ascent had fatigued me somewhat ; I had 

 laid down my gun and game-bag, and was just stopping to 

 drink from a little spring that trickled from a rock, when, not 

 ten yards from me, a large pheasant arose with loud rustling 

 noise, and before I had recovered my gun, he had disappeared 

 over the brow of a hill. 1 felt somewhat ashamed for allowing 

 myself thus to be taken so completely aback j but, noticing 

 the direction in which he had gone, I proceeded more 

 carefully in pursuit. A small stretch of table-land, which I 

 soon reached, was covered with short grass and some little 

 clusters of shrubs, with scattered fragments of rocks j and as 



