River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1911-03-23

M "a friends, the pheasant, has
IA been long neglected by Amer
Va ~ lean agriculturalists, but the
movement for a widespread
introduction Of the valuable bird into
the United States is rapidly gaining
ground as the pre-emfnent merits OF
the pheasant are recognized. 1t IS
matchless as a destroyer Of insect
pests and as a game bird it rivals the
native American species. AS it can
easily be reared in captivity and can
be kept semi-domesticized in the
gicinity in which it is reared, 1t will
prove in many ways a valuable aid to
the farmer.
The pheasant is naturally an insec-
tiYorous bird. The variety Of the in
sect food Of the pheasant is larger
than any other bird, so far as known.
Investigation shows that over $50
varieties Of insects, including earth
worms, are eaten by this bird, and
doubtless many more will be added to
the list on further investigation The
pheasant is especially fond of small
rodents, such as field mice, young
gophers and small snakes. In Eng
land a number of pheasants have
been found choked to death in an at
tempt to swallow worms larger or
longer than they could manage, and
pheasants also have been found dead,
cboked to death on small rodents.
The keepers of large pheasantries
have seen pheasants catch mice that
hn in
birds. This is verified by Fred Bar
nett, superintendent of the pleas
antries at City Park, Denver, Col. Mr..
Barnett says that a pheasant hen will
catch and destroy mouse as quickly
as a cock pheasant or cat, as he
has frequently watched them in the
act. They usually pick the head off
first, then tear and eat the body or
swallow the small ones whole.
Among the insects destroyed by the
pheasant are included ill-smelling
BUGS, that most birds will not touch,
making these birds more valuable to
the farmer than any other. Among
the pests ravenously caught by the
pheasant are the potato beetle, the
SQUASH bug, the cucumber beetle, the
bean leaf beetle, tomato worms, cut
worms and the moth which deposit
the eggs for the wire worms. The
pheasant also digs for and eats the
Wireworms. Most birds avoid the po-
tato beetle and other ill-smelling bugs
on account of their obnoxious odors.
The southern people are importing
the pheasant to fight the cotton boil
weevil and its larvae, and it is said
that one pheasant will eat as many
of the destructive pests as a number
of quail. Many of the insects that
are injurious to the corn crop are de-
stroyed by the pheasant, and the bird
will not attack the grain or ear of the
corn until late in the season, after in
sect food is scarce. The professors
of our agricultural colleges state that
the chinch bug, which destroys $780,
600. 900 worth of wheat annually, is
hunted and eaten by the pheasant,
both in summer and in winter.
The difference between the pleas
ant and the ordinary fowl in eating in
sects is largely that the pheasant is
constantly hunting for the eggs and
larvae of insects, in the grain fields
and meadows, where the insect eggs
are usually laid on the underside of
the leaves of the plants.
Pheasants like grasshopper eggs,
especially those of the locust, which
deposits its eggs in the earth in dry
places, and pheasants in captivity
have been known to dig up light
ground in the search for insect eggs
and larvae.
The common pheasant" of the
books, Is, scientifically, Phasianus
colchicus, and 1t is him that we call
the "bIackneck."
That is good and distinctive title,
because the bird that has made him
rara avis in our coverts, has ousted
him and absorbed him by crossing, is
the bird with the white ring around
his neck-the ringnecked pheasant,
or Phasianus torquatus.
The Japanese pheasant, conspicu-
GUS for the dark green breast of the
male, is not, according to the speci-
mems seen by the present writer. as
large a bird as the English natives;
but it is a curious thing with regard
to all these pheasants that there is a
tendency, which seems to be con-
stant, for a cross between any two
species or varieties to be vary much
larger than either of the original par
,ent stocks. This was the case with
the crosses of the colchicus and tor
iquatus in the first place; and it was
found again, as soon as the crossing
took place between the versicolor and
either Of the older-established kinds.