Birds Pheasants 
The bird which we call the English pheasant, 
which the National Government and several of our 
States have introduced into America, is a bird of the 
mixed English and Ring-necked species. It has now 
become established in Massachusetts, Ohio, Indiana, 
Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Vermont, Pennsyl- 
vania and Kansas. 
There are some beautiful species of pheasants, 
fitted for life in an aviary, although they may not be 
trusted to look after themselves. The best of these 
for a beginner are the Golden and Silver pheasants. 
The cocks of the Golden pheasants have a luxuriant 
crest, their colors are brilliant and dull yellow above 
and scarlet below. The Silver pheasant is well- 
named, for the feathers of its back are white striped 
with black; its crest, throat and under parts are 
purplish black. The young of both of these species 
are hardy and easily reared. 
Mr. Homer Davenport had 38 species of pheasants 
which he succeeded in keeping successfully on his 
New Jersey farm. Many of them were the Reeves 
species, which is a native of the mountains of China. 
The Reeves cocks are rich yellow and black in color, 
and often measure seven feet from beak to tip of tail. 
The most wonderful of all the pheasants is prob- 
ably the famed Argus species from the Malay Penin- 
sula and Sumatra; the cock has the secondary quills 
in the wings developed immensely, even to two feet 
in length; each one of these is striped and spotted 
in leopard pattern, with as many as seventeen eye- 
spots along the outside of the quill. When the 
wings are closed the eye-spots do not show. Mr. 
Davenport noted that when this bird goes wooing 
he elevates his wonderful wings and spreads them 
wide, like a great fan, in front of his lady-love, 
196 
