The San Francisco call., 1898-01-30


 most beautiful and gamiest game
 bird on the face of the earth. From less than one hundred individuals brought into the State in the early eighties they have increased until their numbers are beyond any estimate and they have spread out over the State from the ocean beach to the summit of the Cascade Mountains in such a man. ner as to show that they are capable of adapting themselves to widely different conditions of life. Like all new inno- vations, the Denny pheasant has found few willing to depreciate its value by laying at its door accusations of de- structiveness to crops and orchards, be- sides the minor crime of whipping the farm yard rooster, an accusation to which l am afraid he must plead guilty, although the statement that he afterward espouses the whipped roos- ter's harem is without foundation.
 Whether the introduction of the Dem ny pheasant is detrimental to the inter- eSts Of the farming community or not this article, founded on the writer's ac- Quaintance with the bird almost daily since it's introduction into the State of Oregon, is intended to show
 The Denny pheasant belongs to that order of birds known as the "Gallina," which order embraces all birds that
 
 and 1t should be unnecessary to state that the food of all such birds is largely composed of insects, and the bird in question is no exception to the rule, for 1t is absolutely impossible to raise young pheasants without a plentiful supply Of insect larvae of some kind, and the mature birds are particularly fond of grasshoppers and locusts.
 By following the birds month after month throughout the year their food general hes hp Ghn January finds them seeking shelter from the snow storms along edges of the woods where the brambles are thickest, scratching among the dead leaves for grubs and beetles or eating the berries of the wild rose and other wild species, perhaps, paying an occa- sional visit to near farm yards to scratch few grains of wheat from the chickens feed.
 At this time the sexes may be seen together, but as February draws to close the hens become more timid and are very seldom seen.
 March is the mating season and the males may be seen everywhere, bold and defiant as if proud of their gorge ous plumage, which is now at it's very best.
 The food is much the same as in Jan uary, but by some it is claimed that. at this period they pull up and eat the growing grain; this may be true, but they also consume many thousands of cutwOrms and in that repay hun dred fold for the small damage that it is claimed they do.
 The mating continues during April, and at this time the males are most pugnacious, fighting among themselves, racing up and down the furrows and growing constantly.
 In regard to this it may be well to state how the experienced breeders have found that the best results are obtained when males are killed off un- til they reach the proportion of one male to every three females.
 Toward the end of April or in the first part of May the nest is made by the female. It is simply a depression scratched in the ground and lined with a few dead leaves, dry grass or fern, always well hidden from the sight of man and generally in some fence cor ner or bush pile. Nests have been found both earlier and later than May, owing, no doubt, to the fact that all birds are governed largely by climatic conditions as to the time selected to make their nests and not by the calen- dar months established by man.
 The number of eggs laid ranges from fifteen to twenty. and the period of in- y cubatiOn is tWenty-fOur days from the time the last egg is laid to when the hen leaves the nest with her brood. By many it is claimed that two broods are raised in a season, based on the fact that young chicks have been seen very late in the fall. In the opinion of the writer but one brood is raised, the fact of young chicks being found in the fall being due to the first batch of eggs having been destroyed by skunks, wea- SelS, rats, crows, cats or man, all of whom are inveterate enemies of the pheasants at this period. The food in early summer consists largely of in sects, chiefly grasshoppers, locusts beetles, flies and worms, while the young consume large quantities ot aphids. They are very fond of peas but the damage done is merely casual and as to the assertion that they dam age the orchards by flying through the trees, knocking off the blossoms o1 fruit, it is entirely without foundation as every one who knows anything about pheasants (quail or grouse, sometimes called pheasants in many localities, are not referred to here) knows very vel that they always fly well over timber or run through it, and their habit o1 flying directly upward when flushed 1T the timber has given rise to the tern ''rocketing.'
 During the months of July and Aug. ust, while the grain is in the field, il forms at least two-thirds of their food Fully half of the grain thus consumed is picked from the ground, and would be loss to the farmer in any event.
 It has been often claimed that the birds damage the standing grain by running through it with wings spread and thus knocking it down. This state Tnent is too ridiculous to be worthy of serious consideration. Others state that the birds light on the shocks of wheat and thrash out the grain with = their wings. This certainly does not occur very often and may be easily ex- plained. The bird trying to perch upon the shock finding an unstable perch, he endeavors to gain his
 equilibrium in the same manner
 bQ far rd
 on a loose fence rail, and
 flaps his wings in so do-
 ing.
 The case of the Denny pheasant in N Oregon may be <Z summed up as /GWx follows: / LZf For ten Z MWt