Nice button! I can never research buttons for some reason but someone will know more. I'm in N.E. Iowa and pheasants were introduced about the same time. Google blurb- As Illinois land use changed, pheasants were introduced to replace diminished populations of prairie chickens and other game and hunters reaped the temporary bounty. Ring-necked pheasants, a species native to Asia, were first introduced in Illinois in the late 1800s. Populations peaked in the early 1950s.