"The female," says Mr. Bartlett, "laid about ten eggs, but only three or four birds were hatched, and these died. The Phasianus Soemmerringii at the Antwerp Gardens also bred, but we are unable to say if the young arrived at maturity. In both places the males exhibited a strong inclination to destroy the females, and we come to the conclusion that the species is ill-adapted to breed in captivity."
REEVES' PHEASANT.
REEVES' PHEASANT (Phasianus Reevesii, or P. veneratus) represents a group, called by Wagler Syrmaticus, remarkable for their great length of tail and unusually variegated plumage. In this species the top of the head, ear-tufts, and a broad line around the throat are pure white; the sides of the head and a wide band across the breast are black, the feathers on the mantle, rump, and upper breast are golden yellow, edged with black; those of the lower breast and side whitish grey, decorated with a slender heart-shaped line, broadly edged with brownish red, and those of the belly brownish black. The feathers of the upper wing-covers are blackish brown, bordered with two lighter shades of brown; the quills are striped golden yellow and brownish black; and the tail-feathers silver-grey, dotted with red spots, surrounded by a black line, and broadly bordered with golden yellow. The eye is reddish, the beak and foot greyish yellow. This species resembles the Silver Pheasant in its general size, but has a streaming tail about six feet in length.
Considerable confusion respecting the nomenclature of this remarkable bird has been occasioned by the late M. Temminck having, in his "Histoire Naturelle Generale des Pigeons et des Gallinacés," assigned its two lengthened tail-feathers to the old Phasianus superbus of Linnæus, an error which he subsequently corrected, when describing and figuring this bird in his "Planches Colorées" as P. veneratus. M. Temminck's error was adopted by Dr. Latham; and hence, while the description of the Barred-tail Pheasant, in his "General History of Birds" (Vol. VIII., p. 190), has reference to the old P. superbus, some of his remarks apply to the present species. It is probable that the bird did not escape the notice of the celebrated Marco Polo, since he states "there be plenty of Feysants and very great, for 1 of them is as big as 2 of ours, with Tayles of eygth, nine, and ten spannes long, from the kingdom of Erguyl or Arguill, the western side of Tartary;" but we question if he ever saw more than the central tail-feathers, which, being held in great estimation, were considered to be suitable presents to foreigners, and hence these feathers found their way to Europe many years before the entire bird. Through Mr. Reeves, after whom this species was named by Dr. Gray, we obtained the sight of the skin of a male, and afterwards some parts of a female. He also brought a female in 1838, and both were living in the Zoological Gardens at the same time, but did not breed. Another, brought from China in 1862, lived at Mr. Kelk's seat, near Edgware, among other Pheasants, at perfect liberty and in excellent health, for two years. Since the Chinese War, living examples have successfully bred in more than one menagerie, both in England and on the Continent.
"The successful introduction of the living birds now in this country," says Mr. Tegetmeier, in the Field for June 7, 1867, "is owing to the combined efforts of Mr. John J. Stone, and Mr. Walter Medhurst, H.M. Consul at Hankow."
Latham saw at Sir Joseph Banks's some drawings taken from a curious collection of ancient porcelain, representing a sham-fight on the water for the Emperor's amusement, supposed to be between his Tartarian and Chinese subjects, personated by the females of his seraglio, the chieftains of the former having one of the barred feathers of this species on each side of the bonnet, and the opponents, or Chinese, having two feathers of a Pheasant of a smaller kind, probably a Golden one; hence he concludes that the present bird is a native of Tartary, and not unlikely to be as common there as the other is in China.
Dr. Bennett, in his "Wanderings in New South Wales," writes as follows:—"In Mr. Beale's splendid aviary and gardens at Macao, the beautiful Phasianus veneratus of Temminck, or P. Reevesii of Gray, now commonly known by the name of Reeves' Pheasant, was seen. It is the Che Kai of the Chinese. The longest tail-feathers of this bird are six feet in length, and are placed in the caps of the players when acting military characters. This I observed in Canton, where some of the beautiful tail-feathers (rather in a dirty condition, like the actors themselves, who in their tawdry dresses reminded me of the sweeps in London on a May-day) were placed erect on each side of their caps as a decoration. The Chinese do not venerate this bird, as was at first supposed, and which may have caused Temminck to bestow upon it the name of Veneratus, but it is superstitiously believed that the blood is possessed of poisonous properties, and that the mandarins, when in expectation of losing their rank and being suddenly put to death by order of the Emperor, preserve some of it upon a handkerchief in a dried state, on sucking which they fall down and instantly expire."
Mr. Beale's first male specimen, obtained in 1801, was kept in a healthy state for thirteen years. After its death he endeavoured to procure others, but did not succeed until 1831, when four specimens were brought from the interior and purchased by him for 130 dollars. These were, I believe, subsequently taken to England by Mr. Reeves.