210 PHEASANTS FOB COVEBTS AND AVIARIES. 



would instewd roost in the open air. The females will lay- 

 about twenty-five eggs each in the aviary. I always pro- 

 vided them with baskets to lay in, which they only some- 

 times made use of; they take twenty-four days to hatch. 

 The young cocks do not attain their full plumage until after 

 the moult of the second summer; they drop their chicken 

 feathers when about three months old; their plumage is then 

 something like the hen's, but sufficiently bright in some parts 

 as easily to distinguish them from the young females. In 

 general there are more cocks than hens. 



"If the cock birds are placed in a portion of the aviary 

 apart from hens, any number may be kept together. I have 

 had so many as twelve males in full plumage together, and 

 when during the summer (and indeed at all times) these 

 beautiful birds were going through the very curious and 

 fanciful attitudes and manoeuvres peculiar to them, it was one 

 of the most brilliant sights to be observed in nature. The 

 flashing of their various golden, crimson, blue, and purple 

 plumes in different lights was absolutely dazzling to the eye, 

 and at these times they contrive to display all the most 

 beautiful parts of their plumage to the utmosc advantage; 

 the golden crest is raised, the splendid orange and purple- 

 tipped collar is spread out to its full extent, while the scarlet 

 tail coverts are shown in all their beauty. During the whole 

 time the birds are leaping and dancing round each other, and 

 . uttering occasionally their peculiar shrill cry." 



Mr. Thompson states that he has never known the Golden 

 Pheasant to live longer than ten or eleven years, and that 

 such as came under his knowledge "died almost instanta- 

 neously, and when in the highest possible condition as to 

 flesh and plumage," death being apparently induced by high 

 condition and over fatness. 



Respecting their management in aviaries still more con- 

 fined for space, my friend the late Mr. Ed. Hewitt kindly 

 gave me the following notes : — 



"As I kept Golden Pheasants many years with success, afew 



