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.
Fig. 173. Coops and yards for breeding pheasants. (Photograph from Simpson's Pheasant Farm, Corvallis, Oregon)