Sepi. 8, 1900.1 FOREST AND STREAM. 185 
lar to mildew, broke out, first about the nose and the 
wounds, later spreadifig all over the body, until it was 
completely covered with an ugly looking tetter, and death 
came within a week. As soon as the first white spots 
isegan to extend, another attempt to obtain a successful 
photograph of the snake was made in haste. 
In spite of a beginning sluggishness, the creature was 
still so lively that it was necessary to cover a table with 
glass plates, on which the rapidity of its locomotion was 
not only considerably impeded, but also easier to be con- 
trolled. 
Animal photography — even under favorable circum- 
stances — always requires quite an amount of patience, but 
a camera and a copperhead are a combination to test the 
equanimity of an angel, particularly when the operator 
takes it at heart to obtain a real good picture. The last 
tin when the snake behaved tolerably well for once, it 
remained quiet during fifteen seconds, but soon became 
aervous again, beginning to shake the tail. This necessi- 
tated the capping of the lens before time. The result was, 
of course, far from perfection, and I feel inclined to 
apologize for presenting it to the public. It may only be 
accepted for the reason that it shows nevertheless how 
the reptile looks. The photogj-aph was intended originally 
just for private use, in memory of my beautiful copper 
head. A. W. 
Hints on Pheasant Rearing. 
Dr. T. S. McGillivkay, of the Canadian Pheasantry, 
Hamilton, Canada, has written some useful data about 
the birds and their rearing; and these, though intended for 
the author's own correspondents, will prove of general in^ 
terest and value. He writes : 
English. Chinese (Mongolian), versicolor, Reeves and 
Elliotts are in full phmiage at five months old and breed 
freely the following spring, sometimes before they are a 
year old. The young hens of the English, Chinese and 
versicolor (Japanese-) usually lay better than the old ones. 
The yoUng Reeves are sometimes so wild that they will 
not breed the first year; but when kept tame they breed 
freely at 3 year old. The males of silver, Swinhoe, Lady 
Amherst and golden are not in full plumage until after 
they moult the second summer, when they are a little over 
a year old; but the golden and Lady Amherst will breed 
freely at a year old. Our 3'oung golden hens did better 
this past summer than the old ones, and the chicks are 
wish to sell, as the feathers alone of the adult male will 
bring about $8. 
4. How long do pheasants' eggs take to hatch ? 
Golden from twenty-one to twenty-two days, Amherst 
about twelve hours longer, Chinese, English, versicolor 
and Reeves twenty-four to twenty-five days; silver and 
Swinhoe twenty-eight days. 
5. How many hens to a cock? 
Golden, English, Chinese, Elliotts, versicolor and Reeves 
you can keep one cock with four or five hens ; silver and 
Swinhoe should be kept in pairs. 
6. Is there custom duty on pheasants? 
Pheasants pass free of duty between Canada and the 
States. 
7. Why is it so hard to get purely bred golden 
pheasants ? 
The golden and Lady Amherst belong to the same genus, 
and interbreed so freely that there can scarcely be found 
in Great Britain or America, a golden pheasant that is 
not tainted with Amherst blood or vice versa. The first 
cross gives a beautiful bird far handsomer than either 
parents, and this has tempted most fanciers to cross them, 
but after the first cross the colors run together and pro- 
duce a mean mixture, with no decided coioring. 
8. What is the best way of hatching pheasant eggs? 
We find Cochin bantams the best incubators for 
pheasants' eggs. They should be set on clean ground, out 
of doors, where there is no impure air. 
9. What time of the year is the best to buy pheasants? 
We always advise new beginners to buy their pheasants 
in the early fall, for besides getting the same birds for 
half the money, it gives them an opportunity to study 
the habits of the birds before spring, when the breeding 
-season begins. In fact, there are some of the wilder 
varieties of pheasants that will not breed the following 
spring if shipped from their original homes and to strange 
caretakers later than December. Most pheasants should 
be in their breeding pens a month before the laying season 
begins, and should not be disturbed till the season is over. 
10. What is tlie cheapest way to make a pen for a pair 
of pheasants? 
The cheapest pheasant house we know of can be made 
by taking three 12-foot boards, 14 inches wide. Then 
take a piano box which is just 6 feet across the front. 
Take out the lower front 14 inches from the floor up. 
The piano box (6 feet) and the piece you cut out of the 
piano box (6 feet by 14 inches) will make one end ; that 
with the other three boards (14 inches by 12 feet) will 
/ 
A CHINESE mm. 
stronger birds. The Swinhoe may lay at 3 year old, but 
seldom does, and the silver not till two years old. 
The most common questions are the following: 
1. Give a full description of all the pheasants you 
breed. 
We have ten varieties of pheasants, all of unique 
beauty, whose plumage is as varied as the rainbow, and 
it is impossible to give a description in a fetter or circular. 
We would 'recommend a book on pheasants which will 
give as nearly as is possible, in black and white, a descrip- 
tion of the different kinds of pheasants. 
2. Do pheasants require artificial heat in winter? 
No. Most breeds of pheasants will stand as much cold 
as the prairie chicken. Some of our birds we leave in 
the open air the frostiest days and nights, when the 
thermometer is far below zero. 
3. If a persofi wishes to start pheasant raising with, 
but one breed, what variety would you recommend? 
If the bird's are wanted for shooting preserves, we 
would recommend the English or Chinese (Mongolian); 
but for pets there is none so suitable as the golden. They 
require but little room (12 x 12), and are very hardy, 
^as\ to rais<£, readily tamed and always in demand if you 
give you a square yard of 12 feet. Fasten the corners 
with hooks and eyes. Do not nail. Then nail woven 
■ wire on a 2 x 2 scantling frame, which raises the wall 
of the yard another 2 inches, making 16 inches high, which 
is enough for pheasants when covered in with woven wire. 
Better to have the covering in two or three pieces. A 
small door should be cut in one of the side boards for 
the convenience of food and water. Unscrew the sloping 
boards on top of the piano box, put Iiinges on and convert 
it into a lid that can be lifted up or locked down. Put 
roosts in the piano box, and all is complete for a pair of 
pheasants. When the ground becomes soiled this pen 
can easily be moved. 
Pheasants should not be allowed to see out of their 
pens during breeding season. They should know no 
world but the world within the walls of their pen. 
A comn\on shed with a waterproof roof, and no cracks 
between the boards to cause a draught, facing the morn- 
ing sun, is a first-class place for pheasants — except the 
Swinhoe and silver, which might require a little more 
protection in this cold Canada of ours. 
IT. Is there more money in raising pheasants than 
fancy poultry? 
Yes, vastly, at the present day— after you have once 
secured for yourself the stock. We will here reason it out 
A pound of pheasant flesh can be produced as cheaply as 
a pound of chicken flesh. Now we will compare the 
profits of raising chickens with those of golden pheasants 
as being the favorite and most profitable of pheasants. 
We will take say ten pairs of the best bred large breeds of 
chickens. Out of these ten pairs, no matter how well 
bred, you cannot get more than two pairs that will sell 
for fancy prices, the defects in fowl are so numerous. 
Ptit it that the two perfect pairs will sell for the same 
price as the pheasants, or balance them off at $10 per 
pair; the other eight pairs bringing market price at say 
»3o_cents per pair— $4,80, which makes in all $24.80 for the 
chickens. There are no culls among well-bred pheasants. 
The pheasants, ten pairs at $10 per pair, $100. Allow that 
the fowls will weigh 15 pounds per pair and the golden 
pheasants S pounds per pair; this will give you $2 for 
every pound of pheasant you have raised, and about 16^ 
cents for the chicketi flesh. If the hens when raised are all 
sold at market prices (say 60 cents per pair), the propor- 
tion would be as 4 cents to $2 in favor of the pheasants— 
i. e., every pound of pheasant raised would sell at $2, and 
hen flesh at onl}^ 4 cents, and yet it costs as much to pro- 
duce a pound of hen as a pound of pheasant. Besides, if 
an old cock pheasant dies in full plumage you sell the 
feathers for from $6 to $8. If a rooster dies it is all a 
loss. We find that pheasants' eggs are much more fertile 
than the domestic hens' eggs, and with us, young 
pheasants are more easily raised than chickens. 
Our final advise is — Beware of cats. 
A Strange Chinese Deer. 
Recent dispatches from the vicinity of Pekin, the seat 
of the Chinese fighting, tell of a scout made by American 
troops through one of the hunting parks of the 
Ernperor of China, which lies close to the city, and 
vv'hich is known as Nan-hai-tzu. This park is famou.s 
as one of the places Avhere the Emperor of China takes 
his pleasure, and it is also of especial interest to natural- 
ists as Being the one place in the world where the re- 
markable_ deer known as Elaphurus davidianus is known 
to exist in the wild state. This species, which is known 
to the Chinese as "the four dissimilarities" and is said 
by them to show points of resemblance to the deer, horse, 
cow and ass, was named for the celebrated missionary 
and traveler, the Rev. R. P. David. 
Some years ago we printed in the Forest and Stream 
a picture of this strange deer, which is now reproduced, 
together with the following notes: 
In its conformation this deer is very different from the 
others of the family Cervidce. The head is somewhat 
short, the hips very heavy, and the feet very deeply 
split. The tail, which is much k)nger than in any other 
kind of deer, terrninates in a bunch of long hair, being 
thus like the tail of a bison. But perhaps the most re- 
markable character of this strange anim.al is the horns, 
which seem to be placed on its head backward. All 
known deer have the frontal prolongations so disposed 
that the antlers have their points directed forward, but 
in the present species this is not true, for the points of 
the antlers are directed toward the animal's hips. If 
these antlers should be put in the hands of the taxi- 
dermist, he would be almost sure to direct the points for- 
ward, thus exactly reversing the natural position. 
This animal is timid, excitable and fierce. \ mere 
nothing sufficies to excite it. It moves about but little 
m the day time, but seems much more active at night. 
Until within recent years this animal was unknown to 
naturalists. The first ones brought to France were 
obtained from officers of the household of the Emperor 
ot China by M. De Bellounet, the Minister of France to 
Pekm, but before this pair reached the Jardin d'Acclima- 
tation at Paris, the Zoological Gardens of Berlin had 
already received one. 
Vye do not know whence this deer comes, nor of what 
region it is a native. We only know that for centuries 
the species has lived in freedom in the parks of the 
Emperor of China, as the fallow deer lives in our 
European parks. 
This animal is a dweller in the forests, and fears neither 
cold nor storm. It has a rough coat, doubled in winter 
by a warm fur, which it sheds in spring. Its color is 
dirty white or a pale fawn. Every year in the spring 
the females in the Jardin d'Acclimatation each give birth 
to one young one, whose growth is altogether remark- 
able, for in the autumn the young, then about six 
months old, are almost as tall and heavy as the adults. 
Besides having bred in the gardens at Paris, a number 
of these deer have been raised of late years in the park 
of the Japanese Emperor at Uwino at Tokio, as well a« 
m the zoological gardens at Berlin. The species seeni^ 
to be hardy and easily reared, and perhaps might adapt 
Itself to captivity in any land. 
It would be interesting to learn whether during their 
scout through the Imperial Park at Pekin, our troops 
saw any of these deer or had an opportunity to taste their 
flesh. 
Not the Passenger Pigeon in Caba. 
Six or eigpht months ago, when the old yet ever new 
question of the passenger pigeon was interesting our 
readers, Mr. C. H. Ziegenfuss wrote to us that near 
Santiago de Cuba, where he resided, pigeons were 
abundant, which were said, by persons who should 
know, to be passenger pigeons. 
We wrote Mr. Ziegenfuss, asking him to send us some 
of the remains of the bird to which he referred. For a 
long time nothing was heard from, him, but at length a 
letter came containing som.e fragments of a pigeon, 
but the letter having been mislaid we are only now 
able to announce the identification of the bird sent on. 
Tt IS Coiumba squamosa, Bonn., a species found in several 
of the West India Islands, .and common both in Cuba 
and in Porto Rico. The general color of the bird is 
dark bluish or purplish slate color, and it does not in 
any respect resemble the passenger pigeon, for which it 
appears to have been taken. 
