J. Delacour—Pheasant Notes : Status at Liberty and in Captivity 269


which live in them. It is, therefore, very important that an adequate

stock of the different species of Pheasants should be acclimatized in

different countries and regularly propagated. Few birds take more

readily to artificial conditions of life, and it is absolutely certain that,

with very few exceptions, the different species of Pheasants can

be indefinitely preserved in captivity. We have proof of the accuracy

of this statement in the fact that several species are now common

in Europe, though no fresh blood has been imported for over

fifty years from their native country, where they have become scarce.


It has sometimes been alleged that the English climate is not

favourable to the breeding of Pheasants. It is quite wrong. Most

species live in wet, and often chilly, hill forests, and do quite well in

the somewhat damp parts of England and northern France. To the

few which require a drier and warmer climate, simple but effective

shelters can easily be supplied.


I am not going to give here information on the housing, feeding,

and breeding of Pheasants. But, as it has been my good fortune

to study many species in their natural haunts, as well as in captivity,

I should like to give our readers some idea of their comparative abun¬

dance or rarity at liberty and in captivity, and to this end I am going

to review the different genera of the group.


If we consider the Blood-Pheasants ( Ithaginis ), we need only say

that, living at great altitudes, they have been very seldom imported,

and proved difficult to keep. But no particular effort has so far been

made to acclimatize them. They seem to be still numerous in their

natural habitats of Central Asia and China.


The five species of Tragopans are also birds of high mountains.

On account of the difficulty of reaching their homes in many parts,

they do not seem to be in any immediate danger of extinction, except

perhaps Cabot’s Tragopan, in Eastern China. Latterly, Satyr and

Blyth’s Tragopans have been imported and bred in some number

in France and in America. But Cabot’s and Temminck’s, common

twenty-five years ago, have now become very scarce, while Hasting’s

is unobtainable, for some unknown reason, from its Western Himalayan

home. Although very hardy and ready to breed, Tragopans are not

so easy to propagate as many others, and need special care.



