(Phasianus torquatus)
While the wild turkey is the only representative of the =Phasianidae=
found native to the American continent, the Mongolian pheasant has
been so successfully acclimatized in Oregon and Washington that it
must now be recognized as an established resident species.
After it became an established fact that these pheasants were proving
a success in Oregon, there became a demand for their introduction into
California, and thousands of dollars were spent for a number of years
in an unsuccessful effort to acclimatize them. The pheasant, like the
grouse, is a cold country bird, and the mild and dry climate of
California does not appeal to their peculiar tastes or the
requirements of their physical being. Oregon, however, possesses the
climatic, floral and entomic conditions for which nature has fitted
them. Green vegetation lasts during the whole season in which they
rear their young, thus furnishing them with that abundance of insects
necessary to the health and nourishment of the young chicks. They are
endowed with certain physical attributes for which the cold of winter
is necessary to preserve a continued healthful condition, and this,
too, they find in Oregon. In fact this constitutional demand for the
cold of winter has been by nature so strongly implanted within them
that the rearing of thirty generations in the comparatively mild
climate of Oregon has not effaced it, and obeying this primal instinct
they have migrated through Washington and into the better-loved and
colder winters of British Columbia.
Therefore, while California undoubtedly may have an abundance of wild
turkeys, quail in unlimited numbers and of two or three more species
than we have at present, the timber and the plain tinamus of South
America, and possibly the sand grouse of southern Europe, she will
never have pheasants unless they be of the extreme southern varieties,
and never have more than a limited supply of grouse.
North of the mountains of southern Oregon and through Washington into
British Columbia pheasants are plentiful and furnish the principal
sport of the lovers of upland shooting of that section of the Pacific
Coast. The Mongolian pheasant as a game bird has his merits and
demerits. As a large, beautiful plumaged bird to grace the game bag
the pheasant stands without a rival. As a table bird the pheasant is
only surpassed in delicacy of flavor by the wild turkey. As an
aggravating runner from the dog the pheasant is in a class by itself,
and as an evader of all pursuit when wounded, "the Chinaman," as they
are generally called in Oregon, can give odds to the gambel quail.
Though the pheasant is a large bird and able to carry off a good deal
of shot, it starts so slow to one accustomed to the rapid flight of
the California quail that a reasonably fair shot will find no
difficulty in getting the limit with a sixteen gauge.
They are slow starters, caused by their habit of rising at an angle of
forty-five to fifty degrees until they reach a height of about ten
feet before their rapid flight begins, but when once on the wing they
are quite swift flyers.
While I have said that the pheasants are aggravating runners, this is
principally so in the latter part of the season. In the earlier parts
they are commonly found in the stubble fields, potato and other
vegetable patches, and usually in single broods. At such times I have
found them to lie quite well to the dog, not flushing until closely
approached, and running but little except when winged. They are then
easy shooting, but the fine size of the bird and the beautiful plumage
of the cocks give a zest to the sport and a pleasant distinctiveness
which every sportsman will be pleased to add to the list of upland
shooting he has engaged in.
To those who wish to spend a season on these handsome birds, Oregon,
especially, offers an attraction which goes far beyond its good supply
of pheasants. During the open pheasant season the climate of Oregon is
as near perfect as one can ask. That season of the eastern states that
has been idealized in verse, and is known as Indian summer, finds its
superlative in the early fall of Oregon. The sun shines brightly, but
with its rays softened by its sub-equinoctial position; the air is
mild, clear and invigorating, and the golden hues of the stubble
field, the yet bright green of the grassy pastures, the rich tints of
the dying autumn leaves, all framed in the blue-green fringe of the
near-by pines and firs, produce a picture strikingly beautiful and
always enjoyed. It is in this delightful season with such a picture on
every side, heightened by an occasional glimpse of some towering
mountain peak with its crown of eternal snows, that the sportsman of
Oregon lays aside the cares of life and lives in an elysium during his
pheasant-shooting days. The setting of the stage is as much to the
play as the acting. So with our days after game. The invigorating air
we breathe, the beauty of the landscape, the stateliness of the
forest, the rugged grandeur of the mountains, the soul-inspiring
picture of our dogs on point and back, lends more to the real
enjoyment of the day than does the size of the bag we carry home.
=Color=--Male--The male of the Mongolian pheasant can not be
confounded with any other game bird in America. Its very long tail
feathers--from fifteen to twenty inches--will always prove a
distinguishing mark. Its rich metallic colors of black, cinnamon,
chestnut and ocher give it a combination of hues surpassing that of
any other of our game birds.
Female--Nor should the female ever be mistaken for any other bird. It
partakes much of the general colors of the male, but much subdued and
more of a general ochreous hue, the plumage being buff mottled with
brown. The tail, however, is not more than one-fourth the length of
that of the male.
=Nest and Eggs=--The nest is generally a depression on the ground, but
often in the hollow of some log. The eggs number from 12 to 18 and are
of a dark ochre in color.
=Measurements=--The measurements of a Mongolian pheasant are
practically useless on account of the larger portion of it being the
tail, which greatly varies in length.