Talk:Ring-necked pheasant

Page Clean-Up

Excellent job! I give credit to who actually took the time to edit and fix the page to a readable state. Edson88888 (talk) 20:52, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

Cock or Rooster

Both are commonly used. A quick search on google will produce many authortative sources useing both. For instance see http://gf.nd.gov/pubs/upland-game-id.html and scroll down to the picture of a rooster.--Counsel 23:57, 7 October 2006 (UTC)

That's right, they're called cocks. And in my area, we often refer to them as "Cockbirds". --Yancyfry jr 04:57, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

Male Pheasants are called cocks not roosters.

The anon edit above is from user:212.42.10.194, who is correct. Roosters are male chickens (in the USA) - cockerels or cocks elsewhere. jimfbleak 12:24, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

More general use of term

Following belongs in main pheasant article if it's even true (which it's not in the UK, at least): "The term pheasant can also be used for other gallinaceous birds such as the quail or partridge, and in North America it is occasionally used to refer to the ruffed grouse." BarryNorton 13:19, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

I agree - never heard it in that sense. jimfbleak 15:23, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

I have heard of grouse and chukar called called partriges, but never anything other that a pheasant called a pheasant.--Counsel 18:55, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

Introduction to US

Two incompatible dates are quoted in the article for introduction to the US, 1913 and 1881 - can anyone clarify? seglea 08:06, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Image removed from gallary

[[Image:Phasianus_colchicus.jpg|male]]

The caption said "male" but there is a hen in there as well. And the image is of poor quality (contrast is muddy, brightness is down). TableManners (talk) 03:00, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

Europe centric

This article was EU-centric. I am trying to correct and seperate as I figure this out. However, it is a bit confusing in the intermediate stages of article development. TableManners (talk) 05:04, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Media

The Media section has a film that is overpowering in displaysize, and probably not supported by most readers (the overwelming majority). What is the policy in this circumstance (I would like to remove it). Also, the still of the film seems to show two birds. How good is this film (I have no interest in downloading yet another reader.) TableManners (talk) 04:56, 15 December 2007 (UTC)

I agree - the film just shows a pheasant and a magpie walking around in poor quality. If it can be reduced in size, OK, if not chop it.

I've been through cleaning up, removing "moniker", the unsourced names and some POV. I've reorganised so that similar bits are together, chopped a repeated sentence on how pheasants are hunted with dogs, and used "male" and "female" to deflate an incipient UK/US cock/rooster edit war. I don't think any of this is particulary controversial. Jimfbleak (talk) 08:09, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

Some of the monikers you cut were cited, though. I think, at least, notable alternative terminology should be included. When I get a chance, I can add some more references. Meanwhile, I think the information (alternative names) should be somehow included in the article.

===Monikers=== - The ring necked pheasant is known by many names: - *Common pheasant{{Fact|date=December 2007}} - *Chinese cackle bird{{Fact|date=December 2007}} - *"Chinks" <ref>Proper, Datus C. (1990) p. 22</ref> - *"Mountain chicken" (in China)<ref>[http://travel.nytimes.com/frommers/travel/guides/asia/china/chengde/frm_chengde_3331010028.html ''Chengde Travel Guide''] New York Times Travel </ref> - *"Phezzens" in Montana<ref>Proper, Datus C. (1990) p. 21</ref> - *Ringed-neck{{Fact|date=December 2007}} - *Pheasant{{Fact|date=December 2007}} - *The True Pheasant{{Fact|date=December 2007}}

As far as cock/rooster, it is also called a cock in the U.S., but not nearly as frequently (in my experience) as it is called a rooster. I am not sure these are the same as "color/colour" type debates, as the later are issues of spelling, whereas the "common pheasnant" v. "ring necked pheasant" and "cock" versus "rooster" are issues of different words. (Also, it does seem to me that it should be "ringed neck pheasant" but it looks like "ring necked" is much more common.) TableManners (talk) 16:51, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

The sourced "monikers" are there in para 4 of the article. Male pheasants are never roosters here, someone had changed all the roosters to cocks, so I thought it best to avoid a revert war. Jimfbleak (talk) 17:03, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

Capitalization

I've been clued that this is a problem in other articles, too (e.g., Bobcat), but I am wondering why every (or many) occurances of Common Pheasant are capitalized, even when not at the beginning of a sentence. Thanks. TableManners (talk) 16:58, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

There isn't a problem, bird species are fully capped in accordance with the agreed convention. All 10000 or so Wikipedia:wikiProject Birds articles follow that convention Jimfbleak (talk) 17:03, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

see here Jimfbleak (talk) 17:06, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

I just did. If you slide up on the page you linked to, you will see this:

“ In general, these are only suggestions, and you shouldn't feel obligated to follow them. ”

I don't want to change them just yet. But I am trying to ascertain if this is some arbitrary convention inserted early on in the project, or if there is a basis in a real world convention outside of wikipedia. TableManners (talk) 17:18, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

Also, see Pheasant

“ Any of about 50 species of mostly long-tailed birds in the family Phasianidae (order Galliformes), chiefly Asian but naturalized elsewhere.

Most species inhabit open woodlands and brushy fields. All have a hoarse call. The feet and lower legs are unfeathered. Females are inconspicuous. Most males are strikingly coloured and have one or more leg spurs, and some have a fleshy facial ornament. Males sometimes fight to the death for a harem of hens. Male ring-necked or common pheasants (Phasianus colchicus), 35 in. (90 cm) long, have a streaming tail, coppery breast, purplish green neck, and ear tufts; they are widespread in the northern U.S. Japanese green pheasants (P. versicolor) call in concert when an earthquake is imminent.

”

—Preceding unsigned comment added by TableManners (talk • contribs) 17:29, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

Note: Those interested in the above should comment at Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Birds#Capitalization_of_birds. TableManners (talk) 17:36, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

The rise of driven shooting in the late nineteenth century

“ The rise of driven shooting in the late nineteenth century depended on three factors: the perfection of the modern shotgun, the expansion of the railways which brought the countryside within easy access of London and its society, and the lead given by Queen Victoria's son the Prince of Wales, alter to become King Edward VII. From being the pastime of small groups of hunters, game shooting in Britain underwent a revolution. To compete in the social circles of the Prince's court it was necessary to provide huge numbers of birds to satisfy the demand. No expense was spared and the costs of driven shooting bankrupted a number of large landed families. A saying at the time reflected the economics of pheasant shooting: 'Up gets a guinea, bang goes a penny-halfpenny, and down comes a half a crown.' The costs were high, but the scale was also large. King George V and his son, later King Edward VIII, shot at Hall Barn with Lord Burnham in 1913 when the British record of 3,937 pheasants were shot. The kin later said, 'Perhaps we overdid it today.' (Count Karoly'is guests at Tot Magyar in Hungary hold the world record at 6,125 in 1909.) Shouting on this scale could become a full-time occupation. The second Marquess of Ripon amassed a lifetime kill of 556,813 between 1867 and 1923, including nearly a quarter of a million pheasants and half that number of partridges.^{Robertson (1997) p. 124} ”

Differences between U.S. and U.K.

As a scorecard, feel free to edit or update the following table.

Characteristic	U.S.	U.K.
Name	Pheasant or ring-necked pheasant	Common Pheasant or Pheasant
Male	Rooster but sometimes cockconsidered archaic	Cock or male
Female	Hen	Hen
As hunted	Mostly wildRobertson (1997) p. 125	Mostly farm raisedRobertson (1997) p. 124
Method of hunting	Walked up shootingRobertson (1997) p. 122	Driven shootingRobertson (1997) p. 124
Type of hat worn while hunting	Blaze orange	Top Hatjoking

Sources

• Robertson, Peter (1997) Pheasants Voyageur Press, Inc. ISBN 0-89658-361-9

Green Pheasant

Apropos of nothing, I hadn't realised how hunted P. versicolor were - 500000 per year (males only allowed) with up to 100000 annually released in Japan according to Madge and McGowan, who don't mention earthquakes.

Shouldn't it be "feral" rather than wild in your table above, since it's a non-native sp? In practice, for non-ornithological purposes Common Pheasant is usually just referred to as Pheasant, since it's far and away the most widespread and abundant of our feral species - the other two are very localised and scarce. Similarly, Barn Swallow is the Swallow, Northern Wheatear is Wheatear and Northern Lapwing is Lapwing because other swallows, wheatears and lapwings are very rare.

Anyway, time to see if the servants have ironed my newspaper, Jimfbleak (talk) 06:46, 17 December 2007 (UTC)

Huh?

The bird was brought to Great Britain around the 10th century, arguably earlier, by both the Romans[9] and the Normans, but became locally extinct in the early 17th century.

Er...neither Romans nor Normans were present in Britain in the 10th century - this statement makes close to no sense. john k (talk) 23:32, 1 January 2008 (UTC)