Pheasant
Description
Pheasants are a bird found in numerous variations across Creation, characterized by long tailfeathers, intense sexual dimorphism, and a preference for moving over ground rather than flight (though they are not by any means flightless, capable of taking to the air in short bursts). A large number of variants exist, with distinct plumages for their males, though all females appear similar across variants, barred brown with bare red faces and legs and shorter tails than their male counterparts.
Diet
Pheasants are primarily ground foragers, and will often walk and forage for food at the same time. They consume a diet varying by region, consisting of various fruit, leaves, vegetation, seeds and invertebrates.
Cultural Significance
Pheasants are widespread and popular birds, used in a number of different ways.
More showy variants of pheasant are prized as ornamental features added to the gardens of the wealthy, where they can wander and display their plumage. While female pheasants are not favoured for this, and some keepers will maintain only male pheasants, others will provide females to make breeding pairs (in some legends of the Anathema and the court of the Shogun, those fabulously wealthy nobles would even use thaumaturgic dyes to enliven the females’ plumage with painted scenes). The breeding of pheasants for specific plumage is sponsored by many nobles, and Thorns was once particularly well regarded for its pheasant breeders.
Pheasants are hunted for their meat and feathers, roast pheasant being welcome at tables across Creation both to grant peasants vital protein and as a centerpiece for an everyday noble meal. The feathers are used in fashion, for clothing and to decorate hats. Despite their elaborate plumage, pheasants are very good at concealing themselves, and so they are also hunted for sport, for the most part considered a relatively simple quarry (fit for Dynastic children or wealthy city-dwellers experiencing country life). In some areas, dogs are favoured to flush out and retrieve arrowed birds, and in others pheasant farms have beenestablis hed to raise semi-domesticated pheasants which can be released onto game preserves.
The pheasant is a symbol of the Descending Earth month in Dynastic Fashions, and is used as a device representing several ranks within the mandarin squares of the Thousand Scales.
Variants
- Ring-necked Pheasant: The males of this variant have iridescent green heads and necks separated from brown bodies by a white ring. They are the most widespread of pheasants, found across the Threshold with exception of the West, favouring grassy plains and wetland areas as well as light forests, though in the River Province their place is occupied by the Green Pheasant.
- Green Pheasant: This pheasant is distinguished by its dark green plumage on the breast and mantle. The male also has an iridescent violet neck, large hanging circles of red bare facial skin, and purplish green tail. Its habitat and behaviour are similar to that of the Ring-necked Pheasant, but it is far less widespread, largely restricted to the River Province .
- Pine Pheasant: A pheasant which lacks the colour and brilliance of most of its cousins, with buffy gray-brown plumage and long gray crests. Its long tail has 18 feathers and the central tail feathers are much longer, grey with dark brown bands. The Pine pheasant is found only at high altitudes in the mountains of the central Blessed Isle, where it roosts in the twisted pine trees native to the area.
- Water Pheasant: A dark, medium-sized pheasant, with long, stiff, iridescent tail feathers. The rest of the pheasant’s feathers are dark blue, lightening on cheeks and back, with the exposed skin around the eye a bright red colour. The water pheasant has no crest. Its beak and legs are grey. It is found in the hills and lower mountain slopes of the Blessed Isle, where trees and bamboo provide plentiful cover. Its name comes not from a love of lakes or oceans, but from its shy nature: it ventures out into the open to feed only in the midst of heavy mist or light rain.
- Daimyo Pheasant: The Daimyo Pheasant is a large, rare pheasant found in the mountains of the Southern Threshold. The male is a brightly plumaged bird with a scaled golden white and red body plumage, grey legs, brown iris and red skin around the eye. The head is white with a narrow black band across its eyes. The male has an extremely long white tail barred with black or chestnut brown… it is the longest tail of any pheasant, averaging about eight feet, and is said to grow a foot for each year a Conqueror Pheasant has been alive. daimyo Pheasants are aggressive by nature, as they will attack approaching humans or animals, with a preference for victory by going straight for the eyes of a victim. They will also slay other pheasants, particularly when young, several working in a gang to beat their victim to death. Though they are easily defeated by an armed human hunter, they are hardy and fearless: the harsh terrain they inhabit and willingness to attack make them a challenging game bird.
- Golden Pheasant: A large ornamental bird used as decoration in some gardens, much like the Peafowl. It was almost certainly bred for its plumage in times long past, though records of that effort have been lost. Today, they are found in small numbers in the River Province and Blessed Isle, in noble gardens, and are not found in the wild. Males have a golden-yellow crest with a hint of red at the tip. The face, throat, chin, and the sides of neck are rusty tan. The wattles and orbital skin are both yellow in colour, as are the beaks and feet, and the ruff or cape is light orange. The upper back is green and the rest of the back and rump is golden-yellow. The tertiaries are blue whereas the scapulars are dark red. Other characteristics of the male plumage are the long central tail feathers, black spotted with cinnamon, as well as the tip of the tail being a cinnamon buff. The upper tail coverts are the same colour as the central tail feathers. The male also has a scarlet breast, and scarlet and light chestnut flanks and underparts.
The Golden Pheasant is used to represent the rank of Vice-Minister in the mandarin squares of the Thousand Scales.
- Silver Pheasant: A large ornamental bird used as decoration in some gardens, much like the Peafowl. It was possibly bred for its plumage in times long past, though records of that effort have been lost. It is found in noble gardens in the River Province , and was re-introduced to the Blessed Isle in the wake of the Contagion, via Thorns, to fill some gardens there. They were thought to be the result of a breeding program, but some explorers delving deep into the jungles of the Southeastern and Southwestern Threshold have identified small wild populations distant from any settlement where a noble patron would have included them in a menagerie. The males have silver-white upperparts and tail (most feathers with some black markings), while their underparts and crest are glossy bluish-black, as is the throat and a crest atop the head. The longest tailfeathers are pure silver-white, without black markings.
The Silver Pheasant is used to represent the rank of Secretary in the mandarin squares of the Thousand Scales.
- Bronze Pheasant: A large ornamental bird used as decoration in some gardens, much like the Peafowl. It is thought by some that it might have been the original form of pheasant, from which others were derived including the Golden and Silver pheasants, though records of any such effort have been lost. The male has a rich coppery chestnut plumage, yellowish bill, brown iris and red facial skin. Its tail feathers are not the longest, but can be fanned out and raised for display to attract females or menace predators.
- Blood Pheasant: A rare variant of the bird, blood pheasants are found dwelling in the vicinity of Shadowlands, though how they subsist in such a dead landscape is unknown. They are small, their tails quite short compared to other pheasants, with ash-grey plumage above and grey-white (sometimes tinged with green) below, black beaks, and crimson-red feet and bare rings around the eyes. They will often feed from corpses, not taking dead flesh but rather the plant spores and invertebrates attracted by such rich feeding grounds.
