6 PHEASANT FARMING 



United States Consul General at Shanghai and it was from there that 

 he sent the birds to Oregon. The rapidity with which the birds in- 

 creased in this state is made more marvelous when it is remembered 

 that they were not introduced until 1882, and then only fifty birds 

 were liberated. They were protected absolutely for seven years, and 

 thereafter an open season of six weeks was provided, which was later 

 enlarged to two months, but reduced again in 1909 to thirty days on 

 males only. If the laws were observed the number of pheasants in 

 Oregon would continue to increase with each year. The rapidity of 

 their increase is doubtless due to the large egg production. It is 

 held by those most familiar with the birds that under ordinary con- 

 ditions the hen will raise two broods, and in favorable seasons she will 

 care for three broods, in which duties she is assisted by the cock. 



Prof. W. T. Shaw, in his superb book, "The China, or Denny 

 Pheasant in Oregon," says: "To know the pheasant well, one must 

 live with him throughout the year. He is a bird of moods, influenced 

 by shifting conditions and passing seasons, of which there are for him, 

 11 reality, but two — the open and closed. Within a few days after the 

 law says no more shooting, he becomes bold and fearless, even to the 

 extent of sharing the food of the barnyard fowls in winter, though 

 always reserved and suspicious. In the brush of the lowlands or from 

 the open meadow, comes his two-syllabled call in the stillness of the 

 evening twilight. From his roost among the grass or sedge tussocks, 

 or the great moss-covered branches of an oak, he springs away into 

 the gloom with a startled cry. Throughout the long dry summer the 

 young are reared by the female, until the days of autumn come, the 

 male meanwhile frequently greeting you by the roadside with a 

 glance of curiosity mingled with reserve, standing a moment, erect, 

 in all his brightness of coloration, ducking an instant later to steal 

 silently away among the grass." 



What is said of the China pheasant will apply equally to the 

 English Ring-neck and English pheasant, excepting that the China 

 pheasant is more wild than the other pheasants named, more beautiful 

 and gamey, therefore best adapted to restocking depleted game fields. 

 Thousands have been liberated throughout the United States during the 

 past five or six years, and in every instance they have become so suc- 

 cessfully acclimatized as to stand the most vigorous annual onslaughts, 

 retarded only by the pot-hunter who "bags every last thing that comes 

 in his way, from English sparrows to game wardens." 



An article in the May, 1909, Recreation says: "A mistake was 

 made with the first attempts to raise pheasants in captivity, in sup- 

 posing them polygamous, but the failure which resulted of grouping 

 seven hens to a cock soon taught a lesson. Even on the trial of two 

 hens to a cock the eggs lacked vitality, and of the chicks hatched 

 many died. A breeder in Oregon uses but one hen to a cock, and this 

 is said to be the habit of their wild state." 



Nothing could be more misleading than this. Captivity seems to 



