By the end of 1914, Beebe's pheasant monograph was essentially complete in the manuscript. While the text was written by Beebe, the illustrations were provided by several artists: Robert Bruce Horsfall, who had accompanied Beebe on the expedition, painted the environmental scenes for the illustrations' backgrounds, while the pheasants themselves were painted by other artists including George Edward Lodge, Charles R. Knight, and Louis Agassiz Fuertes. Due to the elaborate nature of the book's color artwork, no American publisher was considered capable of reproducing it. The publisher which Beebe chose for his work was George Witherby and Sons of London, as a result of their success publishing the artwork of John James Audubon. The reproduction of the illustrations themselves was to be handled by several companies in Germany and Austria. Reproductions of the illustrations were in the process of being printed when World War I began, holding up the completion of the project for the next four years.