The Pheasant is not remarkable for its intelligence, for, in spite of its suspicious nature, it falls an easy victim to the poacher.
Pheasants, although they breed in a wild state in our climate, are principally raised in vast enclosures called pheasantries, where all the necessaries to existence are provided for them. As the females are bad mothers, it is no unusual thing for their eggs to be hatched by Domestic Fowls. During the first two months of existence the young Pheasants require the greatest care, for they are predisposed to numerous maladies. Their favourite food is ants' eggs.
The flesh of the mature is very savoury, but rather dry, and epicures consider that it ought not to be eaten till hung a long time, when it is said to be "high," a requisite which by analogy has extended to other game. There is one very curious peculiarity common to certain birds belonging to the family of which we have been speaking, and which is especially remarkable in the Pheasants—it is that when old females become unfruitful they assume the plumage of males. It is said that young Pheasants undergo the same change when deprived of their reproductive organs.
The Golden Pheasant (Phasianus pictus), [Fig. 171], and the Silver Pheasant (P. nychthemerus, Linn.), are two beautiful birds, originally from China and Japan, and now naturalised to Europe. The former, clothed in purple and gold, bears a golden-yellow tuft on its head; the black-and-white costume of the latter is not inferior in beauty to the preceding. Linnæus has named them Nychthemerus (the night and the day). There are also the Ring-necked or Collared Pheasant, slightly different from the Common Pheasant, which for some years has propagated rapidly in France and England; Reeves's Pheasant (Phasianus veneratus, Temm.), indigenous to China, where it is rather rare, and very highly prized for the beauty of its plumage and the extraordinary length of its tail—it is said that the exportation of this bird is severely interdicted; and lastly, the beautiful Lady Amherst's Pheasant, so called because that lady brought two living specimens to Europe. "I pass thus some and of the best," as is said in Hernani, the French comedy.
Fig. 172.—Pheasant-shooting.
The Argus (Argus giganteus, Temm.), [Fig. 173], a bird with magnificent plumage, which inhabits the forests of Java and Sumatra, takes its place beside the Pheasants, from which it only differs in having the tarsi longer and unprovided with spurs, and by the extraordinary development of the secondary feathers of the wings in the male. The tail is large and round, and the two middle feathers are extremely long and quite straight. When paraded, as it struts round the female, spreading its wings and tail, this bird presents to the dazzled eye of the spectator two splendid bronze-coloured fans, upon which are sprinkled a profusion of ocellated markings much resembling eyes: it owes its name of Argus to these spots. In a state of quiescence the wings are folded on the sides, and attract little attention. Only in the male bird is the gorgeous display of colouring to be found. The Argus is very timid; its habits are little known.
The general characteristics of the Cock (Gallus) are as follows:—A middling-sized, curved, and strong beak; head surmounted by a fleshy, red, and denticulated crest, the lower jaw furnished with two hanging gills, equally red and fleshy; rather long tarsi, armed with sharp spurs; short, concave, and obtuse wings; tectiform tail, arched and falling in plumes, with very developed medium feathers; brilliant plumage, with metallic reflections. This description applies exclusively to male birds. Hens, more humble in their costume, are not gifted with these exterior advantages; their plumage is generally dull and without attraction, their straight and slightly-raised tails are limited to an ordinary proportion; their crest is reduced to the most simple excrescence, and in certain species entirely disappears; lastly, their legs are without the murderous spur with which the male is armed. They are also smaller and less vociferous than the male.
Fig. 173.—Argus (Phasianus Argæ, Latham).