May 13. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
105 
them a true breed, though from whence, or why called 
Bohemian, I know not. Lord Sefton first obtained for me a 
cock from Lord Craven (who is a near relative of his) and I 
put him to some hens of the common kind. They bred 
readily, and multiplied much, and by degrees have got into 
our coverts, where they live exactly like the colchicus, and 
are frequently shot in our battues, though in general the 
sportsmen avoid doing so, wdien they seem much savouring 
of the true Bohemian. Baily’s description of these birds is 
very generally correct, though I hardly know that I quite 
agree with his comparison of them with the colchicus. The 
latter is undoubtedly a more brilliant and gorgeous bird, but 
there is a modesty and delicacy about the Bohemian’s 
plumage that I cannot consider at all inferior to the other 
in real beauty. Baily’s idea of its being washed in cream, 
though a very quaint and singular notion, is very truly 
characteristic of its appearance in the male, and perhaps in 
a less degree, though I have not noticed it much there, in 
the hen also. She is of smaller size than the female colchicus, 
and about equal to the hen of Phasiamts versicolor, which I 
had, but have lost. The hybrids between Bohemian and 
common pheasants I think resemble most closely the latter, 
and, as far as I can learn, freely breed with them either 
way. I do not know if the hybrids have ever been tried 
inter se alone, but do not place too much faith in Baily’s 
estimate of the number of Bohemians in England. Among 
some pheasant eggs I had from London last year, one of 
these produced a chicken, which our pheasant-tender, died head, 
was much struck with when very young, and which turned out 
to he a Bohemian. It was reared, but has since died after 
arriving at matuiity. Subsequent to the cock which Lord 
Sefton got for me from Lord Craven, my brother-in-law, 
Col. Hornby, got me, I think from Sir Erederick Bathurst, 
either a hen or a hatch of eggs, and they have bred a good 
many with us here since. I wish we could learn something 
more decisive about them, as I quite agree with Baily, that 
your book mil be incomplete without some account of this 
kind. Their origin is the great point.” 
On this Mr. B. observes,— 
“ Touching Bohemian pheasants, I am glad Lord Derby, 
who in birds is a host, agrees with me in most points ; and 
I am quite prepared to admit I am wrong as to the number 
of them in England, having, since I wrote to you, heard 
from Mr. Eawkes, of Yorkshire, that there are many in his 
neighbourhood. But it must be understood, that when a 
dozen are found in a covert it is thought much of. I cannot 
learn anything of their origin, but have little doubt of the 
1 hybrids ’ [between them and common pheasants] breeding 
one with another, and I would only admit the use of the 
word in a qualified sense. [Mr. B. would include invariable 
sterility in his definition of a “ hybrid,” though it is usually 
employed to signify merely any half-bred or intermediate 
progeny between distinct races, leaving the question of fer¬ 
tility or infertility open to experiment.] My notion of a 
‘ hybrid ’ is a bird produced between two of different tribes, 
as Wild duck and Pintail, or Canada and Bernicle geese, 
both of which I have seen. But the bird between the 
common and Bohemian pheasant I view in the same light 
as a cross between the Labrador and Aylesbury duck: shape, 
habit, and genus are alike, and it makes a ‘ cross ; ’ but as 
no rule of nature is violated, I do not think it a ‘ hybrid.’ 
Some years since, I had a Bohemian cock, and put him to a 
common hen, and bred from his produce till I got an 
apparently pure hen. This bird I put to another pure cock 
given me by Lord Craven, and bred very fine birds.” 
That this fact, however, is no proof of specific identity is 
demonstrated by the famous versicolor experiment. Sir W. 
Jardine’s opinion shows how cautiously any conclusion ought 
here to be decided upon. 
“ The common pheasant breeds also freely witl^tlie ringed 
bird, and the offspring is productive. This has been con¬ 
sidered by many as a proof that these two birds were, iden¬ 
tical ; hut in the whole of this order, and its corespondent one 
among quadrupeds, this law has a much more extended modifi¬ 
cation, and can scarcely be taken as a criterion, except in 
very opposite instances.”— Naturalist's Library ; Gallinaceous 
Birds, page 198. 
For the rest, I have only the result of my gleanings to 
offer. The same writer says :— 
“ There is another very beautiful variety which of late years 
has become extremely common in Scotland, and has received ' 
the appellation of Bohemian pheasant. The ground shade 
of the plumage becomes (?) of a rich green cream colour, 
but the head retains its glossy tint, and the black tips and 
markings on the breast, and belly, and back, appear even 
more conspicuous than in the ordinary state. This state 
may occur from a modification of the same causes which 
influence the change in the white varieties.”— Naturalist's 
Library ; Gallinaceous Birds, page 198. 
Mr. Yarrell’s idea is similar :— 
“ This account of our pheasant having extended to an 
unusual length, the Pang-necked and Bohemian pheasants 
will, for brevity’s sake, be considered as only varieties. The 
two or three examples which I have seen of what are called 
the Bohemian pheasant, shot in this country, have appeared 
to be accidental varieties, very pale in colour on the neck, 
and approaching to huffy white on the chest, back, and 
wings, apparently from weakness, and consequent defective 
secretion.”— Yarrell’s Birds, vol. ii., page 288. (1843.) 
Another account, from a very useful book, is not more 
decided:— 
“ Bohemian pheasant. This name is employed in many 
parts of England to distinguish a species or variety of the 
pheasant which is met with in several preserves, but which 
does not appear to have received the notice of ornithologists. 
The head and neck are coloured much the same as P. col¬ 
chicus, but all the rest of the plumage is of a pale brownish 
yellow, the feathers being edged with black, and indented 
at the tips, as in the species last described (Bing necked) ; 
tail rather darker than the body, but paler than in the 
common] pheasant. The history of this peculiar breed, 
together with the origin of its name, does not appear to 
be well ascertained.”— Jenyns's Manual of British Vertebrate 
Animals, page 107. 
My own Bohemian cock pheasant, in beautiful plumage, 
and awaiting the arrival of a hen or two, escaped from his 
place of confinement during the (Norfolk) snow-storm of 
November, 1851. He was last heard of in the woods at 
Dunston, but has probably been picked up ere now by some 
unauthorized curiosity-hunter, and, having performed by 
railway a journey of indefinite length, may stand staring in 
a smart glass-case, the pride of his possessor. To Bohemian 
pheasants, with me, is attached the word Finis. —D. 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
Floweb-basket-bed (Muffin).—Ye s, the “high-coloured” nastur¬ 
tium, or rather the dark one, will do to trail over the sides of a basket-bed 
filled with yellow calceolarias; plant or sow them just inside the rim, 
and at the first going off keep them well trained to the shape of the bed. 
A bed of Verbena venosa, and Variegated Scarlet Geranium, should be 
planted in regular rows, nine or ten inches apart, and the two alternating 
in the rows. It is not possible to adjust the soil so as to get the two to 
come up of the same size all the season ; the verbena generally taking 
the lead, and the beauty depending on a right balance of the shades. 
The verbena must be often pruned in. The bulbs you sent are Scilla 
non-scripta, White Harebell; and Muscari racemosum, Starch-scented 
Hyacinth. 
Filled-up Pond (F. W. S.). —You have filled a large pond with sand, 
“for want of better materials,” and the surface to the depth of six 
inches, is covered with garden soil, and you ask how the space can be 
turned to the best account. If the pond stands in the dressed ground, 
all the bedding plants and annuals will grow there, and some of them, as 
the strongest geraniums, tagetes, &c., &c., will do better there than 
if the whole was good soil. If in the kitchen-garden, all the spindle- 
rooted crops will do on it. A famous place for radishes, Early Horn carrot, 
skirrets, &c. 
Egg-eating Fowls (G. H. Smith).— The correspondent who com¬ 
plained of his fowls eating their eggs, liad previously supplied them with 
an abundant quantity of those articles so well known to all persons who 
feed poultry, as necessary to their nourishment, digestion, and pro¬ 
ductiveness ; and he had also tried the often-mentioned experiment of 
offering them a hot egg. I know no reason why a fowl should not be 
cured of a bad habit—provided it is a habit, not a necessity—in the same 
manner as a four-footed domestic animal. Those who have been at the 
trouble and expense of raising fowls which they could not procure in the 
market under from one to three guineas each, are naturally anxious to 
try every expedient before consigning them to the cook. As the Editor 
justly remarks, there is very little phosphate of lime in egg-shells. When 
fowls break their eggs for the sake of the shell, I have found they 
generally do so for want of hard substances to assist digestion ; but this 
was not the case with the correspondent’s fowls, as they liked to eat the 
egg, but left the shell.— Ansteii Bonn. 
Bulb-beds (II.).— Your beds of tulips, hyacinths, and anemones, may 
be planted with the Sulpiglossis at once, but as marigolds, China asters, 
and zinnias, can be safely transplanted when more than half-grown, we 
would prefer keeping them in the vegetable part of the ground until the 
bulbs are ripe, when the beds could get a good digging all over. The 
