12 



CIRCULAR 9 6, U. S. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE 



SPECIES RECOMMENDED 



The lairds that man has most successfully exploited have chiefly 

 been wide-ranging forms of evident hardiness, having adaptability 

 to a great diversity of environment and to extremes of climate. The 

 jungle fowl, ancestor of all domesticated fowls, ranges from the 

 equatorial jungles of Sumatra to the southern slopes of the Hima- 

 layas. The common pheasant in a complex group of closely related 

 forms occurs from Asia Minor to Japan and Java. The so-called 

 Hungarian partridge, the same species as the gray or common part- 

 ridge of Great Britain, extends in a chain of subspecies from the 

 British Isles to Siberia and India. 



As possibilities for introduction there are not many species so 

 promising as these from the standpoint of known adaptability, but 

 there are some fairly comparable, as well as others suited to special 



Figure 9. — Reeves's pheasant 



environments where now there are either no game birds or only 

 species of an unsatisfactory type. 



The greatest group of game birds available for introductive ex- 

 ploitation is the family of pheasants. There are about 80 species 

 of pheasants in Asia, all large birds, most of them beautifully plum- 

 aged, and, as a group, characterized by keen senses, great wariness, 

 and ability to look out for themselves both in relation to man and to 

 natural enemies. Reeves's pheasant, the golden pheasant, the Lady 

 Amherst pheasant, and the Japanese pheasant all have been natur- 

 alized in the British Isles, and the Indian peafowl has been estab- 

 lished in various places outside its native range. Thus the possibili- 

 ties of successful introduction of birds of the pheasant tribe are not 

 limited to a very few species. 



