WHITE EARED-PHEASANT

Since then, the Jersey Zoo has bred several hundred from one of two pairs imported via Beijing and East Berlin. Others have been imported into America direct from Beijing. A reasonable captive stock has been built up from these importations, and a studbook for the species is run by the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust.

White Eared-Pheasants are striking birds - unlike the other eared-pheasants, they do not have ear tufts. They are large birds with prominent, red wattles around the eyes, red legs, and tails of blackish-blue with a metallic sheen. It is the white feathers on the rest of the body, however, that makes this species so impressive to look at. It also provides the main variation between the subspecies: the Tibetan or Drouyni C. c. drouyni is pure white, Dolan's C. c. dolani pale grey, and the Sichuan or nominate race is white with grey wings.

White Eared-Pheasants live at high altitudes of 10,000 feet (3,000 meters) and upwards and come principally from western Sichuan and Tibet.

Harry Hardy of Southview Aviaries in Canada has recently discovered a technique for sexing eared-pheasants. As the spurs begin to develop on the legs of young birds, the spur buds of hens are vertically compressed and fairly pliant while those of cocks are quite rigid and grow from a rounded base.