E. H. Lewis—Breeding of Cabot's Tragopan Pheasant



25



They made themselves at home from the start, were very quiet and

gentle, and by the 1st April males were displaying, and shortly after¬

wards the hens commenced to lay. Only one pair, however, proved

fertile, and from these four beautiful birds were hatched, and matured

sufficiently by the middle of October to show us that they were all males.


A brief description of the pens occupied might be of interest and,

we hope, helpful to those of our members who have Pheasants of this

class. These pens have a frontage of 12 feet, a depth of 30 feet, and are

10 feet in height. The front, the only place from which our thousands

of visitors can view the birds, has a stucco and tile base, 2 feet high,

then 1 in. mesh-wire for 8 feet, and a stucco trim on top. Back of the

pen is made into a tight, open-front house, full width of the pen, and

roofed over for 5 feet, the remaining 25 feet to the front being covered

with inch mesh wire. Sides are 2 feet in base boards, the wire mesh to

top. The ground of the pen is for the front 3 feet covered with clean

building-sand, then 20 feet of greens, both for feed and looks, and is

either grass, barley, wheat, or some succulent feed good for the birds.

The balance of the pen is clean earth, with an acacia-tree planted a foot

from the edge of the green. Each pen is watered by a system controlled

from the outside—one valve watering and sprinkling ten pens at once.

The pens therefore have water, growing green feed, a 10 ft. high tree,

clean earth and sand for dusting, and a tight-fitting house in the rear

for shade and perching. We feel that this combination of room, green

feed, water, sun, and shade provides the birds with as near natural

conditions as can be given them in captivity.


The birds were fed on usual Pheasant grain-mixture, with a little

fruit each day. A box of clean grit and shell was before them always.


For nesting we built a box shaped like a small house, with peaked

roof, inside measuring 18 inches square with a front opening of 10 inches:

this was nailed to the wall about 6 feet from the ground and in constant

view of our visitors. The hen would fly into this box from the tree or

from a perch. A little dried grass had been placed in the box, and the

nest suiting her she rewarded us by laying four eggs and commencing

incubation. She was still very quiet and did not leave the nest whilst

we were inside the pen cleaning or feeding. In about twenty-eight

days—we are not quite sure exactly—each egg had hatched and four



