PHEASANT FARMING 7 



change the habits of the bird entirely. The hen rarely ever makes a 

 pretense at laying in a nest, much less set and hatch a brood of young 

 pheasants. The cock becomes decidedly polygamous, and will instantly 

 kill a young bird, if placed in the same enclosure. The percentage of 

 fertility of all pheasant eggs is remarkably great. It is not at all 

 uncommon for every egg to hatch, and the writer has for many years 

 mated from four to six hens with one cock, the latter number invari- 

 e.bly when the yard is sufficiently large. 



In captivity a single China pheasant hen has been known to lay 

 104 eggs in one season, extending from April 1st to September 1st, but 

 sixty eggs is perhaps a fair average. In the wild state, the pheasant 

 seldom roosts in a tree, and then only in one that is open, so it is in 

 confinement. While they may stay in the shedded part of their pen 

 in the daytime, just at dusk they select a place with an open sky 

 above them in which to pass the night, and this, too, regardless of the 

 inclemency of the weather. They seem to be indifferent to snow and 

 rain and after a night out in the rain, appear none the worse for the 

 drenching. They commonly roost on the ground with feathers drawn 

 down tight to the body. 



China Pheasants — Four Weeks Old. 



The young pheasants all have the same plumage until about two 

 months old, that of a grayish brown. When a month old it will be 

 noted that the feathers on the back of the neck near the body on 

 some of the young birds will show slightly lighter in color with a 

 salmon colored cast. These are the hens, the corresponding feathers 

 on the cocks remaining darker and near the color of the remainder of 

 the plumage. When two months old, splotches of chestnut red will 

 begin to appear on the breasts of the cocks. The hens undergo small 

 changes in plumage, and while of a general fawn color, some of the 

 tints shown on her neck are very beautiful, and possessed with re- 

 markable protective coloration. 



The cocks continue to change color rapidly until at five months 

 they will be in full plumage. Their wealth of color, surpassing the 

 rainbow in variety, gorgeous but delicately blended, beggars descrip- 

 tion. The artist's brush has never reproduced it, much less can the 



