It was in 1880 that Judge Denny, then United States consul at Shanghai, sent over the first lot of Chinese, or Mongolian, pheasants. There were seventy of them, and they were sent over in a sailing vessel bound for Puget Sound. With them came explicit instructions as to their treatment: the cocks and hens should be kept separate, and only a certain limited number in each crate. . . . But the reshipping was carelessly done, so that, of the whole number, only eighteen survived—fifteen cocks and three hens—a proportion which the sender would have liked to see reversed. They were very unwisely put on Sauvie's Island, the place of all others to which sportsmen then, as now, resorted. Yet so industriously did they propagate that they soon were common sights in Multnomah County. A few went into Washington County, and some crossed the Columbia to the then territory of Washington. Since then they have spread north to Puget Sound and in various parts of Washington. All the pheasants in the state of Washington are credited to this first beginning—the three hens which survived the shipment of seventy, in 1880.
Having heard of the bad luck which attended his first venture, Judge Denny, in 1881, sent over twenty-eight more —eighteen hens and ten cocks. These were sent to Judge Denny's brother, who lived in Washington Butte, Linn County. He took proper care of them and put them adrift near his place. Thence they have gone into Southern Oregon, and, as Judge Denny thinks, have crossed the Cascade Mountains and appeared in Eastern Oregon.
Judge Denny was home in 1882 and visited the legislature, in session at Salem. His presence induced Judge Truitt ... to prepare a bill for the protection of the pheasant. . .
This provided absolute protection for the birds for five years. Before the five years had expired the protection was extended five more, making ten in all. Then they were placed on the same basis as other pheasants, though the season is a little different.
