The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1890-12-30
THE CHINESE PHEAsANTs.
Habits of the Birds In the Willamette
Valley.

Wheatlsnd, Or, letter in Forest and Stream.
Last winter the snow was at one time
nine inches deep and the weather pretty
cold, about degrees above for a few
nights, and in looking about to see how the
ringnecks were getting along, l found
where they had been hunting weed seed
and scratching down to the ground under
the bushes and other places in their search
for food. They roasted on the ground
like prairie chickens. When there
is no snow they roost either on
the ground or in trees, as
their fancy suits. The snow lay on the
ground for more than three weeks, yet /
don't think the birds suffered much. They
will come into the feed yards and eat any
grain that they may find there. From
what saw of them last winter, / think
that they would stand the winters in the
states east of the Rocky mountains all
right The winters would be longer and
colder, but there is great deal more feed
for such birds there than there 10 here,
such as corn, wild sunhowers, etc.
When spring came the cocks began crow
ing and they are occasionally heard even
vet. They begin the crow and the flap
ping of their wings at the same time and
make few haps of the wings after the
crow has ceased.
They are polygamous | have seen as
many as tive females with one male, and
many of them had two wives. The hens
lay from Is to Is eggs about the size of
those of the prairie chicken and of the
same shape, but of a light brown color.
They make their nests in stubble fields
and along fence rows and such places. In
blowing ninety acres of stubble this spring
We found four nests. The fewest that any
l. "a irfo
one nest of eight eggs the hen had not be-
gun sitting. They will not come back to a
nest when it is removed to the plowed
ground.
The eighteen eggs from the first nest
found were placed under domestic hen,
and in twenty-five days eleven of them
Matched. The nest was not IN very favor
able situation, which may have had some
thing to do with the time of Matching and
strength of the birds. We put the hen in
a pen about twelve feet square on the
ground for couple of days until the birds
learned her language, then we let them
out. But the hen was of the idiotic
kind and would take them out
in the wet grass and weeds in the chill
morning dew and they would get wet and
cold. then get lost and die. Three of them
grew to be large enough to fly little when
two of them disappeared. The remaining
one got to be nearly as large as quail
when one morning it was found In the
yard almost dead and was taken into the
house and cared for, but it died.
OF six Others that were Matched by do
nestle hen on farm near here, two grew
to be large enough to take care of them
selves, when they went off with their wild
brothers.
1t has been stated that they raise two
and three broods season, but | must see
more evidence than | havess seen this sea-
son before I can believe that. | think
that there was not a hen in this neighbor-
hood that reared more than one brood last
summer.
They increase in this state, though,
much faster than the Bob White quail
which were introduced here more than
fifteen years ago, and have not seen one
of them here yet, though | have heard
some calling.