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PHEASANT RAISING IN THE UNITED STATES. 
a bird in a region differing widely in climatic and other physical 
conditions from those to which it has been accustomed. Thus, 
an attempt to introduce into one of the prairie States the common 
blood pheasant (Ithaginis cruentus), which inhabits the Himalayas 
at from 10,000 to 14,000 feet elevation, would result in failure. 
It must be remembered, also, that introduced birds have to adapt 
themselves to a new flora and fauna, and that this is often a slow 
process and frequently fails. If liberated in the wilds, they must 
be provided with reserve food and shelter until able to care for 
themselves, which may take several years. In Oregon the ringnecks 
put out came at first regularly to farmyards to feed with the domestic 
fowls; and English ringnecks liberated on Grand Island, Michigan, 
were driven back by severe weather to the pens from which they had 
been allowed to escape a few months before. 
If pheasants are imported for stocking preserves, suitable coverts 
should be prepared for them. In their native country pheasants 
frequent the margins of woods, coming into open tracts in search 
of food and retreating into thick undergrowth when alarmed. 
An ideal pheasant country is one containing small groves with un¬ 
derbrush and high grass between the trees, thorny hedges, berry¬ 
growing shrubs, water overgrown with reeds, and occasional pas¬ 
tures, meadows, and cultivated grainfields. Bleak mountains, dry 
sandy wastes, and thick woods are not frequented by pheasants 
normally; nor do they seek pines, except for protection. A small 
grove of mixed evergreen and deciduous trees on the southern slope 
of a hill furnishes favorable shelter. 
On the preserve additional shelter should be provided in winter. 
Rude huts or even stacks of straw will serve. Suitable food should 
be planted—such as buckwheat, millet, corn, cabbages, and turnips. 
Stacks of unthreshed grain or of beans may be placed about the 
preserve. 
When shooting is permitted, it is not wise to shoot only the cocks. 
If all the hens are spared, they will increase out of proper proportion, 
to the detriment of both quantity and quality of the progeny. Very 
old cocks and hens should be destroyed. Old cocks are inferior for 
breeding purposes, and old hens will frequently beat off 2- and 3- year- 
old hens and prevent their mating. 
If the birds are annually caught up for breeding, it is important 
to remember that continued rearing in confinement tends to decrease 
of vitality and other changes that impair the value of a game bird. 
The Massachusetts Game Commission, after ten or twelve years’ 
experience, found that their stock deteriorated, becoming smaller 
and more variable in markings and showing a lower vitality in both 
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