liEEVES'S PHEASANT. 



liiglier degree tluui the ring'-nected species, and is of a very 

 wild aud wary nature, it is not a desirable Lird iroiii a 

 sporting point (jf view, except in very l:i,rge ranges oi wood- 

 land ; and from what we have heard from a friend, who has 

 been in the native haunts of this hue bird in the mountains 

 of Northern China., we are inclined to think that it is more 

 likely to prosper in Scotland and in Wales than in our own 

 Midlands. 'I'lio hybrids between this aud the comuKin 

 pheasant are beautiful birds, but m.it, so far as we have beeu 

 able to ascertain, prolific." 



The late i\fr. Ffiu-ne, of Hereford, wlio reared numbers of 

 Iveeves's piieasants, forwarded to lue a letter from a lady 

 who has been most successful with them in the extreme north 

 of Eugliind. Iveg'ardmg this s]iecies she writes : 



"The cock and two hens I ])Ui'cliased have doni.' wonders, 

 and my estate is now fairly stocked with binls, I having put ;dl 

 the season's egg's in nests of the C(jmmon pheasant, except 

 a few which I reared mj'self ami a, few which I sold. ^ly 

 hens last season averaged nearly hfty eggs each — not bad 

 laying." 



Xot only in the extreme north, but in the more cultivated 

 parts of P]iighind, Keeves's plu'asants have d(jue well. One 

 gentleman informed me that during t]u> year ISllo he l•ai^ed 

 more than twenty in the open, which afterwards attaineil i'liU 

 plumage, and found them easy to rear. In January, 1!MJ!)^ a, 

 Reeves's cock pheasant, measuring oft. 'Jm., is reported to 

 have been shot at Rolvenden, Kent. 



There can be no doubt whatever that, as suggested by 

 Lord Lilford, the bird being from N(jrtli China, is hardy and 

 well ada[ited to mountainous districts, such as those of Scot- 

 land and Wales. It appears that the easiest way of intro- 

 ducing it as a wild bird in those places to which it is adapted 

 would be to place the eggs in the nests of pheasants Ijreeding 

 in the open, lieared in those circumstances, t!ie \oung 

 would be hardy and vigorous in the extreme, and would be 

 much more likely to do well than if hand-reared and turned 



