PHEASANTS 
fag HESE birds did not originate in England. 
~ We should need to go to the mountains of 
Asia Minor if we were to seek the common 
English pheasant in its native home. Here 
s we should find mountain slopes covered 
with forests of cedar, oak, walnut, cypress, and 
many trees which we do not know at all; and 
even the trees we do know would look strange to 
us because vines with luxurious foliage and brilliant 
flowers would be clambering over them. From these 
wooded slopes we might see below us the fertile 
valleys where villages were nestled among orange, 
lemon, peach and quince trees. 
In such natural surroundings as these, the pheas- 
ant needs to be a brilliant and beautiful bird to fit 
its environment. Its head and neck of peacock-blue, 
its scarlet cheeks, and orange and coppery plumage, 
matches the foliage under which it hides during the 
day. The beauty of this pheasant was appreciated 
early, for it has been bred in domestication at least 
1600 years. The Romans are said to have taken 
these birds with them during their invasion and con- 
quest of England, and there established them in the 
English forests. In southern Europe this pheas- 
ant takes care of itself very well; but in northern 
Europe and England it needs care and feeding in 
the winter. 
In the wild state, the birds live separately except 
during the breeding season. Then the father bird, 
very proud of his beautiful feathers, wins by his beau- 
ty several wives, and with them forms a band for 
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