The pheasant is not a long-lived bird; but it is probable the period of existence assigned to it by some writers, namely, six or seven years, is too short. The wholesomeness of its flesh was proverbial among the old physicians; it is of a high flavour and alkalescent quality, and in perfection during autumn. A young pheasant very fat is reckoned an exquisite dainty. In a wild state, the hen lays from eighteen to twenty eggs in a season, but seldom more than ten in a state of confinement. Pheasants are not to be tamed by domestication, like other fowls; nor is the flesh of those brought up in the house, in any degree comparable to that of the wild pheasant: thence they are bred at home, either merely for show, or for the purpose of replenishing the proprietor’s grounds, both with regard to number or particular varieties. However good nursing mothers in a wild state, pheasant hens are far otherwise in the house, whence their eggs are always hatched at home by the common hen,—generally, at present, by the smooth-legged bantam.
The natural nest of the pheasant is composed of dry grass and leaves, which being provided for her in confinement she will sometimes properly dispose. The cock is bold, voracious, and cruel; and one which I had many years ago, caught a canary bird which had accidentally escaped, and was observed with it beneath his talons, in the proper attitude of the hawk, tearing it to pieces and devouring it. Pheasants have been seen preying upon a dead carcase, in company with carrion crows; and it has been said that they will fall upon a diseased and weak companion of their own species, and devour it. They feed upon all kinds of insects and vermin, like the peacock, and are said to be particularly greedy of toads, provided they be not too large to swallow; whereas, according to report, they will not touch the frog, of which ducks are so fond. A pheasant was shot by T. Day, Esq. of Herts, the crop of which contained more than half a pint of that destructive insect the wire-worm. And the number of 1606 grains of barley were taken from the crop of a pheasant, at Bury, in Suffolk, in 1727.
The best known varieties of the pheasant, are the golden, the silver, the peacock or spotted, and the common European or English, generally brown, with a less brilliancy of colour. Mr. Castang, however, enumerates six distinct varieties, exclusive of the common, as follow: the gold and silver, natives of China, and very hardy in this country, and good breeders. The ring-necks, natives of Tartary, bred in China, very scarce; their plumage very beautiful. The white and pied; both sorts will intermix readily with our common breed, as will the Bohemian, one of the most beautiful of its kind, and equally scarce. The golden variety is generally of the highest price, the common most hardy and of the largest size.
Breeding Pheasants.—Eggs being provided, put them under a hen that has kept the nest three or four days; and if you set two or three nests on the same day, you will have the advantage of shifting the good eggs. At the end of ten or twelve days, throw away those that are bad, and set the same hen or hens again, if sitting hens should not be plenty.
The hens having sat their full time, such of the young pheasants as are already hatched put into a basket, with a piece of flannel, till the hen has done hatching.
The brood, now come, put under a frame with a net over it, and a place for the hen, that she cannot get to the young pheasants, but that they may go to her: and feed them with boiled egg cut small, boiled milk and bread, alum curd, ants’ eggs, a little of each sort, and often.
After two or three days, they will be acquainted with the call of the hen that hatched them, may have their liberty of running on the grass-plot, or elsewhere, observing to shift them with the sun, and out of the cold winds. They should not have their liberty in the morning till the sun is up; and they must be shut in with the hen in good time in the evening.
Every thing now going on properly, you must be very careful (in order to guard against the distemper to which they are liable) in your choice of a situation for breeding the birds up; and be less afraid of foxes, dogs, pole-cats, and all sorts of vermin, than the distemper. I had rather encounter all the former than the latter; for those, with care, may be prevented, but the distemper, once got in, is like the plague, and destroys all your hopes. What I mean by a good situation, is nothing more than a place where no poultry, pheasants, or turkeys, &c. have ever been kept; such as the warm side of a field, orchard, pleasure-ground, or garden, or even on a common, or a good green lane, under circumstances of this kind; or by a wood-side; but then it is proper for a man to keep with them under a temporary hovel, and to have two or three dogs chained at a proper distance, with a lamp or two at night. I have known a great number of pheasants bred up in this manner, in the most exposed situations. It is proper for the man always to have a gun, that he may keep off the hawks, owls, jays, magpies, &c. The dogs and lamps intimidate the foxes beyond any other means; and the dogs will give tongue for the man to be on his guard if smaller vermin are near, or when strollers make their appearance.
The birds going on as before mentioned, should so continue till December, or, if very early bred, the middle of August. Before they begin to shift the long feathers in the tail, they are to be shut up in the basket with the hen, regularly every night; and when they begin to shift their tail the birds are large, and begin to lie out, that is, they are not willing to come to be shut up in the basket. Those that are intended to be turned out wild should be taught to perch (a situation they have never been used to); this is done by tying a string to the hen’s leg, and obliging her to sit in a tree all night: be sure you put her in the tree before sun-set; and if she falls down, you must persevere in putting her up again, till she is contented with her situation; then the young birds will follow the hen, and perch with her. This being done, and the country now covered with corn, fruits, and shrubs, &c. &c. they will shift for themselves.