2?jH PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. 



the bushes in a very uuexpected maimer. On one occasion 

 he knocked a hidy down, and on anotlier occasion entered thc^ 

 drawing-rfxiiii and attacked a lady wlio was sitting tliere." 



Another wiiter says : " I liave for many years had a 

 score of them running loose with the poultry — two cocks, one 

 an old one, the other a, young mie (if last year, just getting- 

 into full plumage ; the others are hens. In Ijad weather and 

 in winter the}' roost in the ponlfry house, at other times in the 

 trees. The males are most pugnacious and joalons, hghting 

 and bullying the fowls — -so much so that I am obliged to have 

 their spurs cut off — and the hens very spiteful to young 

 poultry. The <:itliers I liave shut u]j, othei'wise they would 

 hght until tliey killed each other. In the breeding time tlu'y 

 fire sliut u]) in large pens. 



" I have frecpumtly had the hens sit on and hatch their 

 ego's ; when tlie}' have 3'oung ones, if anyone goes near tlieiu 

 they act like jjartridges. I have seen them charge dogs and 

 (lri\-e theiu away. I have also seen a cock watching a fox 

 stalkiug hiui, and when the fox mnde his I'ush the bird flew 

 over him, but lost his tail. To show how severely they can 

 m;d^-e thes(! spui's teb, oiu^ of my kee})ers kicked at an old 

 Silver cock pheasant to drive hiiu away, when the bird turned 

 on him and sent his spur right through his boot. They are 

 quite as bad as ]X'afowds in a k'ltehen garden ; they will e:\t 

 all the fruit. They are not vei'y good hirds for the table, but 

 they are useful as being eatable in Februarv and JMarch." 



The Silver Pheasant is a long-lived bird, even in confine- 

 ment. Mr. ThompHon, in his " Xatnral Historv of Ireland," 

 states that he has known (Uie live twenty-one or twenty-two 

 years in captivity. 



The male, without possessing the gorgeous coloration of 

 many of the Fh<(si,iiiid;r, is a very l)eautiful bird. The face is 

 entirely covered with a bright vermilion skin, which during 

 the spring becomes excessively brilliant, and is greatlv 

 increased in size, so as to almost resemlde the comb and wattles 

 of a cock; the flowing crest is Idue-black, the bill light f-reen. 



