PHEASANTS
The guinea and the peafowl were described as closely related to the
pheasants, and as of limited usefulness to man both because of their
ugly dispositions and because of their roving habits. The species of
pheasants that are best known are a little farther removed from
domestication by their extreme shyness, and have often been excluded
from lists of domestic birds; yet it is quite possible that some of them
may become of much greater economic importance in America than either
the guinea or the peafowl.
=Description.= The most common kinds of pheasants are about the size of
small domestic fowls, but have rounder, plumper bodies. There are also
other characteristic differences. The head of a pheasant, except a part
of the face around the eye, is usually feathered. This bare skin, called
the wattle, is red in most species, but in a few it is purplish. The
feathers of the neck are short, and the tail is depressed. Some of the
rarer kinds of pheasants are as large as medium-sized fowls.
Pheasants as a class are distinguished principally for their brilliant
plumage. In most species the male alone has showy coloring, the females
being very sober hued. In some species the male has a very long tail,
corresponding to the train of the peacock; in some the tail is wide and
heavy, as well as quite long; in others the males are feathered like the
females.
The name "pheasant" comes from the name of the river Phasis in Colchis,
at the eastern end of the Euxine Sea. The term "fowl" is not used in
connection with "pheasant," but the words "cock," "hen," and "chicken"
are used as in other cases that have been mentioned.
=Origin.= The pheasants are all natives of Asia, where nearly all known
kinds are found in the wild state. They are well distributed over that
continent, and are found in localities differing greatly in climate and
in the character of the soil and of the vegetation. Some species live
mostly at low altitudes; others are peculiar to high mountain regions.
According to an old Greek legend the first pheasants known in Europe
were brought to Greece by the Argonauts on their return from the
expedition in search of the Golden Fleece. A more probable story is that
which says that they were introduced in the time of Alexander the Great.
Pheasants were reared in confinement for food by the Greeks and the
Egyptians, and also later by the Romans in Italy. Both the rearing and
the use of pheasants in those times seem to have been limited to the
very wealthy. From Greece and Italy they were gradually distributed all
over Europe.
[Illustration: Fig. 168. Ringneck Pheasant[13]]
[13] Figs. 168-172 are from photographs of mounted specimens in the
National Museum, made to illustrate "Pheasant Raising in the United
States," _Farmers' Bulletin No. 390_ of the United States Department of
Agriculture.
=History in America.= The history of pheasants in America is much more
fully known than that of most kinds of poultry. The first importation of
which there is a record was made by an Englishman named Bache, who had
married a daughter of Benjamin Franklin. In England at that time
pheasants were propagated, as they are to-day, in a half-wild state in
game preserves, and Mr. Bache expected that those which he imported and
released on his estate in New Jersey would soon become established
there. In this he was disappointed. Others who subsequently tried the
same plan met with no better success. For a long time the only pheasants
known in this country were those grown in confinement by fanciers.
[Illustration: Fig. 169. Mongolian Pheasant]
The first successful attempt to establish pheasants at liberty on this
continent was made in Oregon with pheasants brought direct from China.
The United States consul at Shanghai sent some Ringneck Pheasants to
Oregon in 1880. As most of these died on the way, a second shipment was
sent in the following year. In all about forty birds were liberated. The
shooting of pheasants was prohibited by law in Oregon until 1892, when
the stock had become so widely distributed and so well established that
shooting them was allowed for a short season. So numerous were the
pheasants at this time that on the first day of this open season about
50,000 were shot by the hunters. In many other states efforts have since
been made, both by state game commissions and by private enterprise, to
acclimatize pheasants and establish them as game birds. Some of these
efforts have been quite successful.
[Illustration: Fig. 170. Amherst Pheasant]
=Species and varieties.= The relationships of the various kinds of
pheasants are not positively known. Some kinds that are undoubtedly
varieties of the same species are commonly classed as different species.
The best-known of these so-called species interbreed freely. The rare
kinds have not been sufficiently tested, either with common kinds or
with one another, to show whether they are species or merely varieties.
The European pheasants, descended from the stocks which came in early
times from Western Asia, are called by various names--Common Pheasant,
Darknecked Pheasant, English Pheasant, and Hungarian Pheasant. Two kinds
of pheasants, of the same type but having more distinctive color
markings, have in recent times been brought from Eastern Asia. One of
these is commonly called the Ringneck Pheasant, but the names "China
Pheasant," "Mongolian Pheasant," and others are also applied to it. The
second variety, also called Mongolian Pheasant, is said by some
authorities to be the only one to which the name "Mongolian" properly
applies. It is not quite like the Ringneck, but, like it, has a white
ring around the neck. From Japan still another bird, called the
Versicolor Pheasant, or Japanese Versicolor Pheasant, very similar in
type, was brought to England. These three varieties from Eastern Asia
have been mixed with the European pheasants to such an extent that there
are now very few pheasants of the type common in Europe before their
introduction, and good specimens of the oriental races are equally rare.
The principal English variety at the present time is a Ringneck produced
from the mixture. This is called the English Pheasant; in England it is
also sometimes called the Common Pheasant. The birds that breed at
liberty in the United States are mostly of the Ringneck type.
[Illustration: Fig. 171. Manchurian Pheasant]
Although they are very beautiful birds, the pheasants thus far mentioned
appear plain in comparison with the Silver and the Golden Pheasants
(which are the most common of the highly ornamental varieties) and the
Reeves and Amherst Pheasants. These are the kinds most often seen in
aviaries and at poultry shows. There are many other rare and curious
varieties which are to be seen only in the finest collections. Among
these is a class called the Eared Pheasants, because of the little tufts
of feathers which project backward at each side of the head, looking
strikingly like the ears of a mammal. The pheasants of this class are
mostly dull colored and quite docile in disposition.
=Place in domestication.= The future place of pheasants in domestication
is not so plainly indicated by their history and present position as the
places of the guinea and the turkey seem to be. Pheasants seem to be
more desirable, easier to control, better suited to confinement, and
also better adapted to wintering out of doors in cold climates, than are
guineas. The beauty of the ornamental types makes them very desirable to
those who keep birds for pleasure. Because they are so much smaller than
peafowl, and also because they are able to live amicably with fowls,
they may be kept where peafowl could not. It is therefore probable that,
as people in America become more familiar with pheasants, and as they
learn that the greatest pleasure and the surest profit in aviculture are
to be found in growing a few birds under the most favorable conditions
that can be made for them, the numbers of pheasant fanciers will greatly
increase.
[Illustration: Fig. 172. Monaul, a Himalayan pheasant]
In England pheasants are extensively grown in game preserves, for
shooting and for sale as breeding stock to those who wish to stock new
preserves. Where the birds are fed by a keeper, as they must be when
they are very numerous, they become so tame that hunting them is not
very exciting sport. Some that have been released in this country, and
have lived in a natural state in places where shooting them was not
allowed, have become quite as tame as the birds in the English
preserves. Altogether the history of efforts to establish pheasants in a
wild state with a measure of protection from hunters shows that it would
often be practical for owners of woodland and waste land to establish
and preserve colonies of wild or half-wild pheasants. Whether this will
be done to any great extent depends upon the extermination of wild
animals and upon the placing of proper restrictions upon the domestic
animals (dogs and cats) which are destructive to land birds; it depends
also, to some extent, upon concert of action among the landowners in a
community, in securing for themselves the use of the pheasants grown on
their lands.
The possibility of domesticating pheasants of the Manchurian type, and
one or two other rare varieties that, when seen on exhibition, appear
very docile, is also to be taken into account. The United States
Department of Agriculture[14] has called attention to the fact that some
of the little-known kinds of pheasants seem especially adapted to
domestication. Even before that, many poultrymen, seeing these birds at
exhibitions, had been impressed by their appearance, and had remarked
that they looked like birds that would become thoroughly domestic. At
the present time persons desiring to grow any of the more common
varieties of pheasants for table use should first ascertain how the game
laws of the state in which they live, and of any state into which they
might want to send pheasants, would affect their undertaking. Sometimes
the laws made to protect pheasants in a wild state have been passed
without due regard for the interests of persons growing them in
captivity. Errors of this kind are usually adjusted before long;
meantime those who may innocently break a law find the situation very
embarrassing.
[14] Pheasant Raising in the United States, _Farmers' Bulletin No. 390_.
=Management of pheasants in confinement.= The breeding of pheasants on a
small scale may be carried on in any place where suitable runs can be
made for them. The first essential is a somewhat secluded site where the
birds will not be subject to frequent disturbances. It should be near
enough to the owner's dwelling to enable him to keep watch of what goes
on in its vicinity, yet not so near that the movements of the members of
the household, as they go about their ordinary affairs, will disturb the
pheasants. It should be where trees or bushes make a natural shade but
not a dense shade; a place where the sun and shade are about equal on a
clear day is best. A light sandy or gravelly soil is to be preferred,
and a clay soil should be avoided. If the land has underbrush on it,
this need not be cleared from the space occupied by the run, unless it
is so thick that it shades the ground too much.
[Illustration: Fig. 173. Coops and yards for breeding pheasants.
(Photograph from Simpson's Pheasant Farm, Corvallis, Oregon)]
The house should be of about the same size and construction as would be
used for a few fowls. A roosting place should also be made in the yard,
for as a rule the birds will prefer to roost outdoors. The house is to
afford them proper shelter from severe storms and during prolonged damp
weather. For either a pair or a pen of a male and several females the
yard should contain about 600 square feet. The fences inclosing it
should be at least 6 feet high, and the top should be covered with wire
netting.
[Illustration: Fig. 174. Young China Pheasants at feeding time.
(Photograph from Simpson's Pheasant Farm, Corvallis, Oregon)]
The Silver, Soemmerring, and Swinhoe Pheasants mate in pairs; the other
familiar kinds are polygamous, and from one to five or six females may
be kept with one male.
Pheasants may be fed the same things as are fed to fowls, and in much
the same manner, but there is one important difference which the
pheasant breeder must carefully observe. Fowls will stand abuse in the
matter of diet much better than pheasants will. In feeding the latter
more attention must be given to providing regular supplies of green
food, to having all food sound and good when fed, and to regulating the
quantity given for a meal so that it will not lie about and become sour
or soiled before it is eaten.
[Illustration: Fig. 175. Fowls and pheasants in same yard on a New
England poultry farm]
Most pheasant fanciers use large bantams or small common hens to hatch
and rear the young pheasants. The period of incubation is from
twenty-two to twenty-four days. Until they are weaned from the hens the
little pheasants may be managed as young chickens are, but with the same
attention to variety of food and to moderation in feeding that has been
specified for the old birds. A small number with a good range on grass
or in a garden will pick much of their food. Many of the older works on
poultry which treated of the care of pheasants recommended for the young
birds a great variety of foods not easily provided. Nowadays the most
successful amateur fanciers feed either a mixture of the common small
grains or some of the commercial mixtures which contain, in addition to
these, a number of seeds and grains not much used by poultry keepers who
buy their grains separately in bulk. Stale cracked corn, which is
dangerous to all young poultry, is especially to be avoided in feeding
young pheasants. After the young pheasants are weaned, they must be kept
in covered runs, or their wings must be clipped to prevent them from
flying.
A large pheasantry is operated on the same general lines as a plant
where birds are grown in small numbers. The method is simply an
extension of that just described. When only one kind of pheasant is
kept, the inclosed yard is sometimes made very large, and a hundred or
more birds are put together. This is not good practice with any kind of
poultry, and is no doubt responsible for much of the trouble which those
growing pheasants in large numbers have had. At aviaries where there are
large collections of pheasants, including many rare and costly kinds,
the yards are always made large enough to give the birds good sanitary
conditions, and as a rule each family of adult birds, whether composed
of two or more, has a yard to itself.