INTRODUCTION xlvii 



In size the eggs of pheasants vary from small eggs of the Japanese Green Pheasant 

 (Phasianus versicolor), only an inch and a half in length (30x38 mm.), to those of the 

 Green Peafowl {Pavo muticus), over twice as long (54 x 86 mm.). Two distinct factors 

 seem to enter into the period of incubation : actual bodily size of the pheasants and 

 the need of the young to fly as soon after hatching as possible. The two extremes are 

 separated by a difference of about ten days. The Junglefowl, Golden, Amherst and 

 Peacock Pheasants hatch in three weeks ; the Silvers, Firebacks, Reeves, Common 

 Pheasants and Argus average twenty-three to twenty-five days ; Tragopans require 

 twenty-seven, Impeyans twenty-eight, Eared-Pheasants twenty-eight to thirty, while 

 Peafowl chicks remain a full month within the shell. This succession accurately 

 represents a gradual increase in size from the slender Goldens and Peacock Pheasants, 

 the females of which weigh but fourteen ounces, to the Peahens of six to eight pounds. 

 Correlated with this is the fact that while the flight-feathers of Junglefowl, Goldens 

 and many other pheasants are but slightly developed at birth, young Tragopans, 

 Impeyans and Peafowl can fly and perch almost from the first. 



The death-rate among the young of pheasants is very great, in spite of their incon- 

 spicuous colouring and their marvellous ability to hide in the scantiest shelter. Two 

 seems to be the average number reared to maturity — at least, that is the average I have 

 observed among many species of wild pheasants. The feeding and care of the young 

 call for no special comment, as they do not differ materially from the domestic habits 

 of fowls or of any gallinaceous birds. The part which the cock plays in incubation 

 and the care of the brood is as variable as the condition of monogamy and poly- 

 gamy. When his plumage is very brilliant he apparently never goes near the nest, 

 although he may rejoin the hen when she goes off for food, or afterwards when the 

 young birds begin to perch. In more decidedly polygamous species, the female and 

 her brood have still less attention, and she often assumes all the labour of rearing the 

 young. The tail of the Peacock Pheasants is used in a curious manner as a protection 

 for the young. When frightened, or when steadily on the march from place to place 

 without feeding, the two young birds keep at the very heels of their mother, well under 

 the overarching tail, and thus protected from any sudden attack. When they are reared 

 under a domestic hen this inherited habit is often the cause of their death, for while 

 there is no sheltering tail overhead, they keep so constantly close behind the hen that 

 she not infrequently either steps upon them or kicks them while scratching. The young 

 Peacock Pheasants are specialized in still another way. For the first week or so their 

 natural mother is accustomed to feeding them from her beak, and from the failure to 

 do this on the part of the equally solicitous but awkward hen, they sometimes starve 

 to death while actually standing in the food-pan. The young of all pheasants remain 

 with one or both parents throughout their first autumn and winter. The succeeding 

 spring they gradually drift apart. Those which do not breed the first spring and still 

 retain the immature dress, frequently gather in loose flocks composed of several broods, 

 which feed and roost throughout the second year in more or less close association. The 

 second winter such birds as the Impeyans unite, adults, second year birds and young 

 of the year, and remain together during the cold weather. In the spring all breeding 

 cocks must separate or fight, and a parent will kill his full-grown offspring as willingly 

 as a strange rival if they do not leave his domain. 



