Our Domestic Birds Part 14

The wild peafowls in different parts of Asia vary somewhat in color and are sometimes thought to be of different species, but they are evidently all varieties of the same species. Specimens of all are seen in domestication. One variety is almost black. Domestic life has had little if any effect upon the type of peafowls. A white variety has been produced, and from the mixture of this with the green variety, birds that are partly white are sometimes obtained.

The significance of the terms "fowl," "c.o.c.k," "hen," and "chick," or "chicken," in combination with the "pea" in the name of this bird is, of course, perfectly plain. Those who seek further meaning in the first syllable are puzzled until they consult the dictionary and find that the three letters as they occur here are not the word "pea," but a contraction of _pawa_, which was an Anglo-Saxon corruption of _pavo_, the Latin name of the bird. While the original meaning of the name is not known, the word came into the Latin language from the Greek, into which it had previously come from the Persian. Hence, the history of the name indicates that the distribution of the peafowl was along much the same lines in Europe as the distribution of the fowl.

=Origin.= The peafowl is supposed to be a native of Java and Ceylon. It is found throughout Southern Asia and is said to be very numerous in India and Ceylon, both in the wild state and in a half-domestic state.

It was known to the Jews in the time of Solomon, and to all the ancient civilized peoples of Western Asia, Europe, and Africa at a very early period. In the days of the Roman Empire a peac.o.c.k served with the feathers on[12] was a favorite dish at the feasts of wealthy Romans, and this mode of serving the bird was continued in Western Europe for many centuries. At what time they were introduced into that part of the world is not known, but it is probable that they were distributed to the various countries soon after the Roman conquests. Nor is anything known of their first introduction into America. It is, however, quite reasonable to suppose that some were brought here at an early date by wealthy colonists.

[12] Of course the bird was not cooked with the feathers on, but was skinned, the feathers remaining in the skin, and after the flesh was cooked the skin with the feathers was placed over it before it appeared on the table. Skinning poultry instead of plucking the feathers seems to have been quite a common practice in old times. As recently as between 1880 and 1890 the author heard of people who preferred it as the easiest way of preparing chickens to be cooked immediately.

=Place in domestication.= In Europe and America the peafowl is now bred only for ornamental purposes. That seems to be its status even in the Asiatic countries, where it is most abundant, and its position has probably been much the same in all lands and in all ages. The use of fully developed peac.o.c.ks for food at banquets was simply a display of barbarous extravagance. Although a young peafowl is very good eating, a male old enough to have acquired its full plumage would be hard, tough, and unpalatable. The peafowl is not prolific enough to be a profitable table bird, and is too desirable for its beauty to be used for any other purpose. In this country peafowls are not common. Very few are seen except in zoological collections and at the princ.i.p.al poultry shows. The scarcity of peafowl is not due wholly to the expense of procuring them or to the difficulty of rearing them. Indeed, neither of these const.i.tutes a serious drawback to their popularity. The peafowl is its own worst enemy in domestication. It has a very savage disposition toward smaller birds, and in this way usually makes itself an intolerable nuisance to those who grow other poultry. Many owners of large farms, who do not keep turkeys, or who keep only a small flock, might maintain a small stock of peafowl with very little trouble.

Although they are so vicious when brought in close contact with smaller poultry, they will flock and forage by themselves if they have room to do so.

=Management.= The methods of managing turkeys apply at nearly every point to the management of peafowl. The peafowl matures more slowly and does not breed so early. The females are not fit for breeding until two years old; the males not until three years old. They do not pair, but mate in small polygamous families--one male with from two to four females. The peahen usually lays from four to six eggs--rarely more than eight or ten. The period of incubation is four weeks. Young peachicks are very bright and active. They begin to fly when only three or four days old. If they are to be kept in an inclosure while very small, the sides must be high or the top must be covered with wire netting.

Although so active, they are less independent than most young poultry, and follow the mother closely until she drives them from her at the approach of the next breeding season. Peahens are preferred as mothers, because their disposition is to keep their young with them much longer than a turkey or a fowl does. Next to the peahen a turkey hen makes the best mother for peachicks.

CHAPTER XIV

PHEASANTS

The guinea and the peafowl were described as closely related to the pheasants, and as of limited usefulness to man both because of their ugly dispositions and because of their roving habits. The species of pheasants that are best known are a little farther removed from domestication by their extreme shyness, and have often been excluded from lists of domestic birds; yet it is quite possible that some of them may become of much greater economic importance in America than either the guinea or the peafowl.

=Description.= The most common kinds of pheasants are about the size of small domestic fowls, but have rounder, plumper bodies. There are also other characteristic differences. The head of a pheasant, except a part of the face around the eye, is usually feathered. This bare skin, called the wattle, is red in most species, but in a few it is purplish. The feathers of the neck are short, and the tail is depressed. Some of the rarer kinds of pheasants are as large as medium-sized fowls.

Pheasants as a cla.s.s are distinguished princ.i.p.ally for their brilliant plumage. In most species the male alone has showy coloring, the females being very sober hued. In some species the male has a very long tail, corresponding to the train of the peac.o.c.k; in some the tail is wide and heavy, as well as quite long; in others the males are feathered like the females.

The name "pheasant" comes from the name of the river Phasis in Colchis, at the eastern end of the Euxine Sea. The term "fowl" is not used in connection with "pheasant," but the words "c.o.c.k," "hen," and "chicken"

are used as in other cases that have been mentioned.

=Origin.= The pheasants are all natives of Asia, where nearly all known kinds are found in the wild state. They are well distributed over that continent, and are found in localities differing greatly in climate and in the character of the soil and of the vegetation. Some species live mostly at low alt.i.tudes; others are peculiar to high mountain regions.

According to an old Greek legend the first pheasants known in Europe were brought to Greece by the Argonauts on their return from the expedition in search of the Golden Fleece. A more probable story is that which says that they were introduced in the time of Alexander the Great.

Pheasants were reared in confinement for food by the Greeks and the Egyptians, and also later by the Romans in Italy. Both the rearing and the use of pheasants in those times seem to have been limited to the very wealthy. From Greece and Italy they were gradually distributed all over Europe.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 168. Ringneck Pheasant[13]]

[13] Figs. 168-172 are from photographs of mounted specimens in the National Museum, made to ill.u.s.trate "Pheasant Raising in the United States," _Farmers' Bulletin No. 390_ of the United States Department of Agriculture.

=History in America.= The history of pheasants in America is much more fully known than that of most kinds of poultry. The first importation of which there is a record was made by an Englishman named Bache, who had married a daughter of Benjamin Franklin. In England at that time pheasants were propagated, as they are to-day, in a half-wild state in game preserves, and Mr. Bache expected that those which he imported and released on his estate in New Jersey would soon become established there. In this he was disappointed. Others who subsequently tried the same plan met with no better success. For a long time the only pheasants known in this country were those grown in confinement by fanciers.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 169. Mongolian Pheasant]

The first successful attempt to establish pheasants at liberty on this continent was made in Oregon with pheasants brought direct from China.

The United States consul at Shanghai sent some Ringneck Pheasants to Oregon in 1880. As most of these died on the way, a second s.h.i.+pment was sent in the following year. In all about forty birds were liberated. The shooting of pheasants was prohibited by law in Oregon until 1892, when the stock had become so widely distributed and so well established that shooting them was allowed for a short season. So numerous were the pheasants at this time that on the first day of this open season about 50,000 were shot by the hunters. In many other states efforts have since been made, both by state game commissions and by private enterprise, to acclimatize pheasants and establish them as game birds. Some of these efforts have been quite successful.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 170. Amherst Pheasant]

=Species and varieties.= The relations.h.i.+ps of the various kinds of pheasants are not positively known. Some kinds that are undoubtedly varieties of the same species are commonly cla.s.sed as different species.

The best-known of these so-called species interbreed freely. The rare kinds have not been sufficiently tested, either with common kinds or with one another, to show whether they are species or merely varieties.

The European pheasants, descended from the stocks which came in early times from Western Asia, are called by various names--Common Pheasant, Darknecked Pheasant, English Pheasant, and Hungarian Pheasant. Two kinds of pheasants, of the same type but having more distinctive color markings, have in recent times been brought from Eastern Asia. One of these is commonly called the Ringneck Pheasant, but the names "China Pheasant," "Mongolian Pheasant," and others are also applied to it. The second variety, also called Mongolian Pheasant, is said by some authorities to be the only one to which the name "Mongolian" properly applies. It is not quite like the Ringneck, but, like it, has a white ring around the neck. From j.a.pan still another bird, called the Versicolor Pheasant, or j.a.panese Versicolor Pheasant, very similar in type, was brought to England. These three varieties from Eastern Asia have been mixed with the European pheasants to such an extent that there are now very few pheasants of the type common in Europe before their introduction, and good specimens of the oriental races are equally rare.

The princ.i.p.al English variety at the present time is a Ringneck produced from the mixture. This is called the English Pheasant; in England it is also sometimes called the Common Pheasant. The birds that breed at liberty in the United States are mostly of the Ringneck type.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 171. Manchurian Pheasant]

Although they are very beautiful birds, the pheasants thus far mentioned appear plain in comparison with the Silver and the Golden Pheasants (which are the most common of the highly ornamental varieties) and the Reeves and Amherst Pheasants. These are the kinds most often seen in aviaries and at poultry shows. There are many other rare and curious varieties which are to be seen only in the finest collections. Among these is a cla.s.s called the Eared Pheasants, because of the little tufts of feathers which project backward at each side of the head, looking strikingly like the ears of a mammal. The pheasants of this cla.s.s are mostly dull colored and quite docile in disposition.

=Place in domestication.= The future place of pheasants in domestication is not so plainly indicated by their history and present position as the places of the guinea and the turkey seem to be. Pheasants seem to be more desirable, easier to control, better suited to confinement, and also better adapted to wintering out of doors in cold climates, than are guineas. The beauty of the ornamental types makes them very desirable to those who keep birds for pleasure. Because they are so much smaller than peafowl, and also because they are able to live amicably with fowls, they may be kept where peafowl could not. It is therefore probable that, as people in America become more familiar with pheasants, and as they learn that the greatest pleasure and the surest profit in aviculture are to be found in growing a few birds under the most favorable conditions that can be made for them, the numbers of pheasant fanciers will greatly increase.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 172. Monaul, a Himalayan pheasant]

In England pheasants are extensively grown in game preserves, for shooting and for sale as breeding stock to those who wish to stock new preserves. Where the birds are fed by a keeper, as they must be when they are very numerous, they become so tame that hunting them is not very exciting sport. Some that have been released in this country, and have lived in a natural state in places where shooting them was not allowed, have become quite as tame as the birds in the English preserves. Altogether the history of efforts to establish pheasants in a wild state with a measure of protection from hunters shows that it would often be practical for owners of woodland and waste land to establish and preserve colonies of wild or half-wild pheasants. Whether this will be done to any great extent depends upon the extermination of wild animals and upon the placing of proper restrictions upon the domestic animals (dogs and cats) which are destructive to land birds; it depends also, to some extent, upon concert of action among the landowners in a community, in securing for themselves the use of the pheasants grown on their lands.

The possibility of domesticating pheasants of the Manchurian type, and one or two other rare varieties that, when seen on exhibition, appear very docile, is also to be taken into account. The United States Department of Agriculture[14] has called attention to the fact that some of the little-known kinds of pheasants seem especially adapted to domestication. Even before that, many poultrymen, seeing these birds at exhibitions, had been impressed by their appearance, and had remarked that they looked like birds that would become thoroughly domestic. At the present time persons desiring to grow any of the more common varieties of pheasants for table use should first ascertain how the game laws of the state in which they live, and of any state into which they might want to send pheasants, would affect their undertaking. Sometimes the laws made to protect pheasants in a wild state have been pa.s.sed without due regard for the interests of persons growing them in captivity. Errors of this kind are usually adjusted before long; meantime those who may innocently break a law find the situation very embarra.s.sing.

[14] Pheasant Raising in the United States, _Farmers' Bulletin No. 390_.

=Management of pheasants in confinement.= The breeding of pheasants on a small scale may be carried on in any place where suitable runs can be made for them. The first essential is a somewhat secluded site where the birds will not be subject to frequent disturbances. It should be near enough to the owner's dwelling to enable him to keep watch of what goes on in its vicinity, yet not so near that the movements of the members of the household, as they go about their ordinary affairs, will disturb the pheasants. It should be where trees or bushes make a natural shade but not a dense shade; a place where the sun and shade are about equal on a clear day is best. A light sandy or gravelly soil is to be preferred, and a clay soil should be avoided. If the land has underbrush on it, this need not be cleared from the s.p.a.ce occupied by the run, unless it is so thick that it shades the ground too much.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 173. Coops and yards for breeding pheasants.

(Photograph from Simpson's Pheasant Farm, Corvallis, Oregon)]

The house should be of about the same size and construction as would be used for a few fowls. A roosting place should also be made in the yard, for as a rule the birds will prefer to roost outdoors. The house is to afford them proper shelter from severe storms and during prolonged damp weather. For either a pair or a pen of a male and several females the yard should contain about 600 square feet. The fences inclosing it should be at least 6 feet high, and the top should be covered with wire netting.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 174. Young China Pheasants at feeding time.

(Photograph from Simpson's Pheasant Farm, Corvallis, Oregon)]

The Silver, Soemmerring, and Swinhoe Pheasants mate in pairs; the other familiar kinds are polygamous, and from one to five or six females may be kept with one male.

Pheasants may be fed the same things as are fed to fowls, and in much the same manner, but there is one important difference which the pheasant breeder must carefully observe. Fowls will stand abuse in the matter of diet much better than pheasants will. In feeding the latter more attention must be given to providing regular supplies of green food, to having all food sound and good when fed, and to regulating the quant.i.ty given for a meal so that it will not lie about and become sour or soiled before it is eaten.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 175. Fowls and pheasants in same yard on a New England poultry farm]

Most pheasant fanciers use large bantams or small common hens to hatch and rear the young pheasants. The period of incubation is from twenty-two to twenty-four days. Until they are weaned from the hens the little pheasants may be managed as young chickens are, but with the same attention to variety of food and to moderation in feeding that has been specified for the old birds. A small number with a good range on gra.s.s or in a garden will pick much of their food. Many of the older works on poultry which treated of the care of pheasants recommended for the young birds a great variety of foods not easily provided. Nowadays the most successful amateur fanciers feed either a mixture of the common small grains or some of the commercial mixtures which contain, in addition to these, a number of seeds and grains not much used by poultry keepers who buy their grains separately in bulk. Stale cracked corn, which is dangerous to all young poultry, is especially to be avoided in feeding young pheasants. After the young pheasants are weaned, they must be kept in covered runs, or their wings must be clipped to prevent them from flying.

A large pheasantry is operated on the same general lines as a plant where birds are grown in small numbers. The method is simply an extension of that just described. When only one kind of pheasant is kept, the inclosed yard is sometimes made very large, and a hundred or more birds are put together. This is not good practice with any kind of poultry, and is no doubt responsible for much of the trouble which those growing pheasants in large numbers have had. At aviaries where there are large collections of pheasants, including many rare and costly kinds, the yards are always made large enough to give the birds good sanitary conditions, and as a rule each family of adult birds, whether composed of two or more, has a yard to itself.

CHAPTER XV

SWANS

Naturalists divide swans into a number of different species. Whether this division is correct is not known. The habits of swans, and the circ.u.mstances under which they are usually kept, tend to prevent the mingling of different kinds. As far as the author has been able to learn, there is no evidence which shows conclusively the relations of any of the supposed different species. The differences between them are in some cases very slight. Some of the decisions of the naturalists who have cla.s.sified slightly different kinds as distinct species are based upon examinations of very small numbers of specimens. Considering the apparent resemblances of the different kinds of swans in the light of what is known of species and varieties in fowls, ducks, geese, and pheasants, it seems probable that the true species of swans are fewer in number than the common cla.s.sification shows, and it also seems quite possible that all swans are of the same species.

=Description.= The common swan, called the domestic swan, is about the size of the largest domestic geese, but appears larger because it has a longer neck and head and larger wings. The body is also somewhat longer than that of a goose of about the same weight, and the swan is a much more graceful bird than a large goose. It is sometimes called the Mute Swan, to distinguish it from the Whistling Swan, which is a very similar kind not bred in domestication. There are other slight differences between the Mute Swans and the Whistling Swans, but the difference in the voice, if it really is as great as is supposed, is the only one of much consequence in deciding their relations. The Mute Swan is not dumb. It sometimes makes a low, whistling sound. People are not agreed as to whether there is any real foundation for the familiar tradition that the Mute Swan remains silent until about to die, and then sings a "song." Some people acquainted with the habits of swans declare that the swan is more vocal when dying than at any other time in its life. Others say that the idea probably arose as a result of some one's hearing a dying swan moaning in pain, as sick animals and birds often do, and concluding that it was uttering a series of sounds characteristic of swans in a dying condition. However that may be, the Mute Swan is distinctly less noisy than the wild Whistling Swan.