A Hardy Bird. 231 



pheasants. They are very beautiful, being of a strikingly 

 rich auburn, shading into every variety of gold colour ; but 

 they were invariably unproliflc, and sought every possible 

 opportunity to evince their pugnacity to all other birds 

 confined with them. 



" Golden Pheasants will endure every severity of our 

 chmate. Some years since I gave away some eggs,, from which 

 birds were hatched and turned loose in a large plantation ; 

 they bred freely the ensuing year, and well stocked the pre- 

 serve ; the year following some withdrew to a covert at some 

 considerable distance, driving away the common pheasants 

 and taking possession of the whole. Some Golden Pheasants' 

 eggs, which I forwarded as a present to a friend whose pre- 

 serves are among the largest in the kingdom, were hatched 

 very early last season and the birds turned loose ; these bore all 

 the rigours of winter as well as any others, but in the spring 

 began to show a decided aversion to their fellows of more 

 sombre hue." 



Mr. Hewitt further stated that the sexes in the chicks were 

 easily distinguished, the eyes of the cocks being light, those 

 of the hens deep hazel. 



Golden Pheasants that have escaped to the coverts and 

 been shot are found when cooked to be of very delicate flavour. 

 These escaped birds will sometimes breed with the ordinary 

 species. Mr. Mayes, writing to me from Blveden, stated that 

 " the Golden Pheasant will cross with the common pheasant ; 

 we have had two or three instances of their doing so the last 

 two years ; but it is rare, as we have had Golden Pheasants 

 turned out the last ten years or more, and never knew them to 

 cross with any other pheasant before." 



