io6 
The Natural History of British Game Birds 
Sunderland was the first to make a serious trial with the birds, and his remarks in 
Tegetmeier's Pheasants are of interest. He says (pp. 194-195) : — 
" In 1901 I read in Tegetmeier's work on pheasants that the Prince of Wales's pheasant 
would be a welcome addition to the British coverts, and I therefore determined to introduce 
this beautiful bird into Europe. I first tried the importation of eggs, but they proved a dismal 
and costly failure. In the autumn of 1902 I went to the East, and succeeded in securing 
several birds. No one could positively inform me whether this species of pheasant was poly- 
gamous or not, so I brought to England an equal number of cocks and hens. A useless pre- 
caution, for the cocks fought for the hens in the usual manner. The birds stood the long 
journey very well, and were turned down into large enclosures in Hampshire at the end of 
February 1903. They did not begin to lay till the end of April, but laid very freely, those 
in one pen averaging over thirty eggs a hen. Virtually all the eggs proved fertile. They 
hatched extremely well, and the strong chicks proved fully as easy to rear as those from 
the ordinary pheasant. They were fed on custard and oatmeal, etc., as recommended by 
Tegetmeier. They were brought up in fields of standing corn and buckwheat, surrounded 
by wire fences ten feet high, and the farm-yard hens employed as foster mothers were at 
large in these fields. The birds were pinioned when five days old. I wanted them to be 
able to fly a little, and severed the wing joint with scissors, so as to leave them with two 
flight feathers. This has proved a costly blunder, for with only these two flight feathers the birds 
could fly over the ten feet of wire with the greatest ease. It was quite a business to catch 
them in October, when I moved into Sussex, and indeed I left several birds in the woods of 
Conholt Park. Before turning them down in Sussex I removed the two flight feathers from 
each bird, but despite all precautions, some of the birds still fly over the wire. In shooting 
my woods several were seen, and two were shot, being mistaken for ordinary wild birds, so 
well did they fly. Each pen consists of several acres of wood, pasture, and arable land, which 
will be sown with corn and buckwheat. Only five hens and one (unrelated) cock run to the 
acre, therefore this breed of pheasant should remain free from all civilised diseases. I may 
mention that I have noticed that the birds are extremely fond of the flower of the common 
charlock." 
Mr. W. H. St. Quintin says : 
"I confess to a great partiality for this pheasant, which I have found prolific, particularly 
easy to rear, and no more prone to wander than any other species or cross that I have tried." 
Sub-species of P. colchicus 
THE JAPANESE PHEASANT 
Phasianus colchicus versicolor (Vieillon) 
Adult Male. — This is the smallest of the sub-species of P. colchicus, and its size 
is doubtless due to its long isolation on the Japanese islands. It is easily distin- 
guished by its dark colour, and that the whole of the under parts are suffused with 
dark green, whilst the sides of the breast are a rich grass green. The mantle is 
1 Field, January 23, 1909. 
