Ornamental Pheasant Society Notes



295



The Zoo at Regent’s Park has three varieties of the Argus Pheasant

—'this is the huge Pheasant with a wonderful display. Of the Malay

Argus ( Argusianus argus Linnaeus) Beebe says this great Pheasant

lives a solitary life in the jungles of the Malay Peninsula ; they are

polygamus and the cocks take no share in hatching eggs or rearing

young. The Bornean Argus (. Argusianus grayii Elliott) is almost the

same, the chief difference being its slightly smaller size. There are

also examples of Bheinart’s Ocellated Pheasant (Rheinarclius ocellatus

Elliott) from the mountain forests of Western Annan.


The Zoo has several different varieties of the Kaleege. Eirst

the beautiful well-known, and extensively bred Silver Pheasant or

Chinese Silver Kaleege ( Gennxus nycthemerus Linnaeus), Swinhoe’s

Pheasant, or Kaleege ( Gennseus swinhoei Gould), Edward’s Pheasant

(Gennseus edwardsi) from the Province of Kuang-tsi in Annam. Nothing

seems to be recorded about its haunts and habits and it must be

fairly rare.


(To be concluded)



ORNAMENTAL PHEASANT SOCIETY NOTES


I am convinced that many members of the A.S. must wonder why we

consider it necessary to advertise Ornamental Pheasants in the manner

we do. Such members might well argue that these beautiful birds should

advertise themselves. This is a comfortable way of regarding this matter

but whilst the general public of Great Britain and other countries are

fully alive to the attractiveness of such birds as those belonging to the

Parrot tribe, foreign Pinches and other small birds, not one person in a

thousand has ever viewed the beauty of the Ornamental Pheasants, other

than the common Covert Pheasant. It is therefore our duty to familiarize

our public with these birds and we have spent quite a lot of money in

arranging for them to be shown at many prominent bird shows. This

year also we have exhibited them at some of the large agricultural

shows. We supplied small pens measuring 2 by 1 yard and in these



