472 



FOREST AND STREAM, 



[MAY 19, 1892, 



THE MONGOLIAN PHEASANT, 



THE neatly furnished rooms of the "Willamette Rod and 

 Gun Club at First and Stark streets, Portland, Ore- 

 gon, were well filled on the evening of April 29, with a 

 majority of the 117 members, on the occasion of the pre- 

 sentation to Judge O. N. Denny by 

 the club of a beautiful group of 

 Mongolian pheasants, handsomely 

 mounted and arranged behind an 

 oval glass, with an oil painting for 

 a background, the whole richly 

 framed. The group consists of a 

 cock and a hen pheasant, with a 

 brood of seven chicks, mounted to 

 order by Capt. S. S. Douglass, and 

 has been greatly admired. At re- 

 quest of the club, that venerable 

 Oregon sportsman, Hon. J.W.Whal- 

 ley, made the presentation. He 

 spoke as follows; 



Hon. O. N. Denny — The members 

 of the "Willamette Rod and Gun 

 Club have commissioned me to per- 

 form this evening the pleasing task 

 of personally testifying their grate- 

 ful appreciation of your efforts to 

 add to the amusement as well as 

 the food supply of this and suc- 

 ceeding generations, and to present 

 to you an appropriate and beautiful 

 testimonial of their love and re- 

 spect. It has been said that he who 

 causes two blades of grass to grow 

 where but one grew before, deserves 

 well of his kind. Much more then 

 is he entitled to praise and grati- 

 tude who causes fruitfulness to dwell 

 where barrenness previously existed. 

 What is true of the products of the 

 earth is also true of the living things 

 that feed on those products, and he 

 is to be regarded as a public bene- 

 factor who furnishes new means for 

 the proper gratification of man- 

 kind's necessities or wants. 



When you were commissioned as 

 consul to Tien Tsin, China,. by the 

 government of the United S fates, 

 your fellow citizens well knew that 

 the delicate and sometimes danger- 

 ous duties devolving on you would 

 be discharged with fidelity and 

 courage, and with an eye single to 

 the honor and greatness of our com- 

 mon country, and saw you depart to 

 assume your duties, pleased to find 

 that your abilities had. found recog- 

 nition, but regretting to be deprived, 

 even for a brief time, of your cour- 

 teous and genial companionship. 

 Little did they then think how 

 much the event of your appoint- 

 ment was to increase the material 

 wealth and attractiveness of this 

 State. Perceiving the hardy nature 

 of the ring- necked or Mongolian pheasant in your new 

 abode, noting its excellence as an article of food, its 

 remarkable fecundity and gamy habits and flight, 

 observing also its habitat, and comparing mentally 

 the climate of its home with that of Oregon, you 

 arrived at the conclusion that this State was adapted 

 to its propagation and acclimatization. Acting upon this 



to be estimated at tens of thousands of dollars. If their 

 value be estimated on account of the increased pecuniary 

 value which their presence gives to the farms on which 

 they are found, or for the healthful and innocent amuse- 

 ment which their pursuit will, for coming ages, afford to 

 the sportsmen, it is absolutely incalculable. 



We are happy that the farmers in Linn and Benton 

 counties are beginning to see the great advantage to their 

 farms from having them well stocked with these birds 

 and taking strong grounds against their slaughter by pot- 



W. A. Storey. 

 Vice-President Willamette Hod and Gun Oluh. 



conclusion, at great personal pecuniary sacrifice, you 

 sent out two different lots of these birds, causing the first 

 lot to be turnpd out in the counties, I believe, of Linn 

 and Benton, and placing the last lot, sent under the 

 charge of the Multnomah Rod and Gun Club, by which 

 association of sportsmen they were distributed to sepa- 

 rate and appropriate points. Under legislative enact- 

 ments of protectian to these birds, they have, notwith- 

 standing the very insufficient enforcement of the law, 

 increased to such an extent as to justify the assertion 

 that they have become permanent denizens of the valleys 

 of Oregon, their fecundity, wary habits and present num- 

 bers rendering their extermination very improbable, if 

 not impossible. If the value of the birds now in the 

 State were computed at the same price as that of barn- 

 yard fowls, which they far excel in flavor, it would have 



HON. O. N. DKNNY. 



hunters at improper seasons. We feel they will fully 

 sympathize with us in our efforts to do honor to one who 

 has conferred such lasting benefits on them, on us and on 

 posterity. Permit me, then, dear Judge, on behalf of the 

 Willamette Rod and Gun Club, to present to you these 

 Mongolian pheasants, mounted in the best style of the 

 taxidermist's art, to decorate your home, and, when you 

 look at them, to remind you of the sentiments of grati- 

 tude and esteem which the donors will ever entertain for 

 you as a public-spirited gentleman. 



JUDGE DENNY'S REPLY. 



In reply Judge Denny spoke as follows: It is difficult 

 for me to find words with which to renly to the very com- 

 plimentary language just uttered by Judg« Whalley and 

 other gentlemen, and to appropriately express the grati- 

 tude I feel for the royal way you have signified your 

 appreciation of my efforts in adding to the game attrac- 

 tions of our young and prosperous commonwealth. To 

 me the highest reward a private or public citizen can 

 receive for his course is the approval of his acts by his 

 fellow men. When Columbus discovered this great 

 country of ours, which has become the veritable home of 

 abroad, free and progressive civilization, and which is 

 destined to work out upon its shores the highest degree of 

 civil and religious liberty under the *un, it did not pre- 

 sent or possess very many of the beauties and attractive 

 features which to dav are the boast and pride of all 

 Americans, as well as the admiration of the people of 

 other lands, for these have been added pince, either 

 through the genius of our institutions or through private 

 or public enterprise. Bearing this fact in mind, I deter- 

 mined, when I went to China in the service of our Gov- 

 ernment, to contribute at least something in the same 

 direction should opportunity offer. 



It was this thought which prompted me, while consul 

 general at Shanghai, to send to this State the Pekin 

 ducks and bantam fowls, and to send to the Langshan 

 Hills on the River Yangtszn for the pure breed Langshan 

 fowls, and to send also the lichu and loquot fruits, as wpII 

 as the tallest, most graceful and attractive of all the 

 grasses, the bamboo (now growing in your City Park, as 

 well as in other beautiful spots in Portland, but not 80 ft. 

 high and 1ft. in diameter as I have seen it on the Island 

 of Formosa), together with shrubs and plants too numerous 

 to mention here, and last but not l^ast, though not as tall 

 as the Formosa bamboo, yet tall enough, the cause of 

 your assembling here to-night, that game and handsome 

 bird which challenges the admiration of every sportsman 

 in Oregon— the ringnecked pheasant. During our absence 

 neither Mrs. Denny nor myself ever forgot for a moment 

 that we were Americans and citizens of the great State of 

 Oregon, with a residence in one of the most picturesquely 

 located and beautifully surrounded cities in the world — 

 Portland, on the banks of the charming Willamette, the 

 Amo of Oregon. 



Under these circumstances, and the fact that the sports 

 of field, and stream have many attractions for me, it; wag 



but natural that I should remember my brother sportsmen 

 at home, and although it is more than eleven years ago, 

 it seems but yesterday when I resolved to carry this enter- 



grise to practical results. It happened in this way ; The 

 hinese farmers never shoot the birds or do anything 

 which tends to frighten them from their fields, as they 

 hold them friends, rather than enemies, doing far more 

 good to their crops than harm. When they take them 

 for the markets it is with nets and alive, but the fact that 

 they were often poor and half starved induced me to 

 purchase them by the dozens and 

 feed them until they were fat and 

 fit for the table. On one occasion I 

 had in my in closure a large number 

 of extraordinarily handsome birds, 

 and while admiring them one day I 

 thought, what would I not give just 

 to be able to turn the entire lot 

 adrift in Oregon; then and there 

 the resolve was made, and you 

 gentlemen know the result. 



While preparing the birds for ship- 

 ment an English friend of mine said: 

 "Where are you sending the pheas- 

 ants?'' I replied, "To Oregon." "To 

 Oregon? Where is tha* ?" "Oregon, 

 sir, is my home, on the Pacific coast, 

 where the influence of the warm 

 currents which set in from Japan, 

 renders the winter months as mild 

 almost as a spring day, while the 

 breezes from Alaska in the north 

 keep the summer months delight- 

 fully cool and pleasant, and whose 

 broad and fertile prairies and beau- 

 tiful valleys, aided by the regularity 

 of the seasons, never fail to reward 

 the tiller of the soil for his labor. 

 Truly a land of fruit and flowers, 

 combining at the same time all those 

 natural elements of wealth which 

 form the basis of every prosperous 

 community the world over, while 

 upon its grazing lands the fattest 

 herds comparatively unfed in winter, 

 are always to be found, a land of the 

 broadest possibilities for future man- 

 ufactures and great enterprises, 

 where t he laborer's song of content- 

 ment is heard, happy in the thought 

 that in the vast majority of cases 

 he is the owner of the house that 

 protects himself and family, where 

 magnificent mountains and table- 

 lands are covered with timber as fine 

 as ever adorned a forest, liberally 

 interspersed with choice game, while 

 the mountain streams that fairly 

 leap from their snow-clad sources 

 are literally alive with those speckled 

 beauties we love so well — a land 

 where able, industrious and enter- 

 prising men. aided, encouraged and 

 applauded by loyal and accomplished 

 women are engaged in laying the 

 foundations, broad and deep, of a 

 great and prosperous State, and the 

 snow-crowned peaks of Hood, Jeffer- 

 son, Adams, St. Helens, Ranier and 

 the Three Graces, or Sisters, stand, 

 like eternal sentinels that they are, guarding the 

 busy scenes below. There is Oregon." "Send the 

 pheasants along," said he, "and I will follow them, 

 for that is the land I have been looking for." Whether 

 be has followed or not I cannot say, but I do know that 

 the birds are here, and here to stay, I trust, as they are 

 among the fittest. 



There are, I believe thirteen varieties in China; in fact, 

 that empirp is termed the home of the pheasant. On the 

 island of Formosa is found the Swinno?: in the Ningpo 



Capt. W. J. Riley. 



President Willamette Rod and Gun Club. 



district, the Elliot and Darwin, and in Tschitzuen, the 

 Reebes and Amhurat. These five varieties have taken the 

 names of the foreigners discovering them, or the first to 

 procure specimens of them, while among other varieties 

 found in China are the ring-neck, golden, silver, tragopan, 

 hochu, etc. As you are aware, about six years ago I 

 brought to this State ninety pheasants, which included the 

 silver, golden, copper and green varieties, which were 

 sent to Protection Island, in Washington, for the purpose 

 of breeding and distribution in this State, as well as in 

 other localities; but up to the present no practical results 

 have been attained, although I am informed that they 

 have inoreased quite rapidly and are now numerous 

 on the island. Some six" or seven of the varieties above 

 referred to have been successfully introduced in Europe 

 and are now quite plentiful, and there is no good reason. 



