24 
PHASIANIDiE. 
Golden Pheasant, Phasiauus pictus, Linn. 
My friend Wm. Sinclaire, Esq., having been particularly successful 
in rearing these birds at the Palis near Belfast, 1 have thought that an 
account of his mode of doing so would be desirable. He has kindly 
contributed the following ; — ■ 
“ Golden pheasants are very easily reared in confinement, and are 
quite as hardy as any of the other pheasants, or as any of our domestic 
fowls ; indeed I question if any of them are sooner able to provide a 
subsistence for themselves, or to live independent of the parent bird. 
In the several years experience I have had in the rearing of these birds, 
I have considered them past all danger when they arrived at the age of 
three or four weeks ; in fact, at that age, those which 1 brought up in 
the garden began to leave the bantam hen which hatched them, and 
take into the gooseberry bushes to perch at night ; and very soon 
after, into the apple trees. I always observed that they roosted at the 
extremity of the branches, where they were quite safe from the attacks 
of cats or other vermin. This habit, together with their very early 
disposition to roost at night, leads me to infer that their introduction 
into this country as a game bird would not be difficult ; and that in 
our large demesnes, where protected from shooters, they would become 
very numerous. But I should imagine that they would not answer where 
the common pheasants were already introduced, as they are shy 
timid birds, and would be easily driven oft' by the other species. The 
individuals before referred to, which were reared in the garden, con- 
sisted of a family of six : they always remained in the garden where 
they were regularly fed, except at the commencement of winter, when 
they ceased roosting in the apple trees, took to a belt of Scotch firs 
which bounded the garden on one side, and roosted in them all the 
winter and following spring. I have seen them sitting in the trees 
when their branches were laden with snow, but they did not seem to 
sutfer in the slightest degree from the severity of winter. About the 
month of February they first began to wander from the garden for 
short distances ; and as the spring advanced, finally disappeared, 
and I never could hear of their being met with afterwards. 
“ In rearing the young, I found that the very best food for them, and 
of which they were most fond, was the larvae of the blue-bottle fly,* 
* Flesh-fly, Musca carnaria, Linn. ? W. T, 
