The Washington herald., 1913-08-17
Official of New York Zoo and
Wife Risked Many Dangers
in the Wilds to Study Fast
Dying Pheasant Race.

One of the most interesting scientific
expeditions of late years has recently
been concluded by e. William Beebe
curator of birds at the New York Zoo.
logical Gardens and now engaged in ar
ranging and setting forth the result.
Of his late labors. Mr.. Beebe has trav-
eled, in company with his wife, more
than fifty thousand miles in two years
through the widest parts of tropical and
Oriental countries, through swamp and
jungle, forest and desert, through the
head hunters district of Borneo anc
through the plague district of China, fol-
no other purpose than the collection and
study of the pheasants of the world.
These beautiful birds are becoming ex.
tinct rapidly. so rapidly, Mr.. Beebe de-
clares, that even today it would be i'm.
possible for him to repeat the results
Of his expedition. On the trip that he
has concluded, however, he has been
sufficiently fortunate to secure specimens
of the nineteen pheasant groups that
compose the species and to learn so
much about the life and the varieties of
this type of bird and kindred varieties
that there will be little left to say about
pheasants when his book is finally pub
hshed, under the auspices of the New
York Geological Society. In the autumn
OF 1914. The reason for the previous
hiatus in pheasant lore among nacurallsts
is hard to explain, although II is largely
due to the inaccessibility of SO many
of the one hundred different kinds of
pheasants.
The financial part of Mr.. Beebe's trip
was taken care of by Col. Anthony r.
Guser, one Of the managers of the Zoo
logical Society, who offered to finance
the expedition. whatever it should cost;
and ii will cost 100000 when all the ex-
penses are accounted for.
Leaving New York Christmas Day, 1902
Mr.. Beebe and his wife Travelled success
lively through Ceylon. India, Tibet, Kash-
mir, Burma, the Malay States, Borneo,
sumatra, Java, China, and Japan, expe-
riencing unusual adventures. They were
shot at with poisoned arrows and lost
eleven of their servants through disease
and accident. They were in the first anti
foreign riots at Hankow, most of which
they witnessed from a river steamer, and
Mr.. Beebe nearly lost his life when go
ing ashore to draw money from the bank.
They came in contact with the pneumonia
plague, which was raging at Tien-tsin
and in other places. when they were
obliged to go out into the Cobb Desert
In their search for the cared pheasant,
and one day in Borneo they were treated
TO the spectacle of one of their own
servants returning to camp with the
heads of eight hostile Dyaks dangling
from his girdle.
shot at with Poisoned Arrows.
These adventures, however, were, to
Mr. Beebe, merely incidents in his work |
OF collecting pheasants. and with the true |
scientific viewpoint he considers the dis |
covery Of the blood-red pheasant of the |
Himalayas or the dancing place. of the |
Argus pheasant in Borrfeo greatly more /
important. There were many reasons for /
his choosing pheasants and kindred birds
for the subject of his researches, chief /
OF which is that he considers the pheas- 1
ants to be the most interesting and eco:
nomically valuable Of all, notably as the
red jungle fowl Is the ancestor of all our
breeds of domestic chicken Chickens
We're originally jungle fowl domesticated
On the Malay Peninsula and taken from
there to China, where they formed the
hrst barnyard poultry thousands of years
sTo. and perhaps laid some Of those an