THE SILVER PHEASANT, 127 



of the family. The hens, though not usually allowed to do so, will readily hatch their 

 own eggs, and attend upon their chickens with all the care of common fowls. I 

 have recently seen a pair, belonging to Mr. Clarence Bartlett, in a moderate-sized 

 aviary, the hen of which had laid, hatched, and was rearing a strong healthy brood 

 of young, the cock being active in defence of his family, and attacking most 

 viciously any person going into the inclosure. No game cock could be more 

 determined or courageous in his behaviour; and the sharp spurs with which this 

 species is armed rendered his assault a thing to be avoided, as he flew at the face 

 of the intruder on his domain, 



A correspondent informs me that he has "reared several SUver Pheasants in 

 confinement, and has turned them out about the grounds. The males are exceed- 

 ingly tame, but also exceedingly dangerous. Last year I had a lovely specimen, 

 which used to feed at the window of the breakfast-room with the peafowl and other 

 birds, and even knock at the glass and make its way into the room. Bnt, in 

 the spring, when hatching was going on, he attacked ladies and children in the 

 most determiaed manner, always flying at the face. He would dodge people 

 walking, and make his appearance from under the bushes in a very unexpected 

 manner ; on one occasion he knocked a lady down, and on another occasion entered 

 the drawing-room and attacked a lady who was sitting there." 



Another writer says : — " I have for many years had a score of them running 

 loose with the poultry — two cocks, one an old one, the other a young one of last 

 year, just getting into full plumage; the others are hens. In bad weather atnd in 

 winter they roost in the poultry house, at other times in the trees. The ma,les are 

 most pugnacious and jealous, fighting and biillying the fowls — so much so that I 

 am obliged to have their spurs cut off — and the hens very spiteful to young poultry. 

 The others I have shut up, otherwise they would fight until they killed each other. 

 In the breeding time they are shut up in large pens. 



" I have frequently had the hens sit on and hatch their eggs ; wh^n th^ 

 have young ones, if anyone goes near them they act like partridges. I hayg §efn 

 them charge dogs and drive them away. I have iE(rlso seen a cock watching 9, fox 

 stalking him, and when the fox made his rush the bird flew over him, but lost Ins 

 tail. To show how severely they can make these spurs tell, one of my keepers 

 kicked at an old silver cock pheasant to drive him away, when the bird turned on 

 him and sent his spur right through his boot. They are quite as bad as peafowls 

 in a kitchen garden ; they wiU eat all the fruit. They are not very good birds for 

 the table— I think little better than guinea fowls ; but they are useful as being 

 eatable in Eebruary and March." 



Even in confinement it is a long-lived bird. Mr. Thompson, in his "Natural 

 History of Ireland," states that he has known one live twenty-one or twenty-two 

 years in captivity. 



