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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



A CHAPTER ON PHEASANTS. 



{Conihiiied from page 244.) 



BOTH pheasants and partridges are partial to 

 nesting in clover ; when this is cut, a large 

 number of eggs are often destroyed by the scythe 

 or mowing machine. 



The pheasant is more than a half reclaimed bird, 

 while the partridge wanders in wildest freedom 

 through the land, heedless of the fostering care of 

 man. The bird in question when hatched under a 

 domestic fowl will come to be fed at all hours of the 

 day ; it will sometimes associate with the poultiy on 

 the farm, and, where it is not disturbed, will roost in 

 trees close to our habitation ; and notwithstanding the 

 proximity of this bird to the nature of the barn-door- 

 fowl, still its innate timidity baffles every attempt 

 on the part of man to render its domestication com- 

 plete. Waterton says he spent some months in try- 

 ing to overcome this timorous propensity, but he 

 failed completely in the attempt. The young birds 

 which he had hatched under a domestic hen, soon 

 became very tame, and received food from the hand 

 when it was offered cautiously to them. They would 

 fly up to the windows and feed in company with 

 the common poultry. But if anybody approached 

 them unawares, off they went to the nearest cover 

 with surprising velocity, where they would remain till 

 all was quiet, and then return with their usual con- 

 fidence. Two of them lost their lives in water by 

 the unexpected appearance of a pointer, while the 

 barn-door-fowl seemed scarcely to notice the presence 

 of the intruder ; the rest of the young birds finally 

 took to the woods at the commencement of the breed- 

 ing season. 



Hybrids between the pheasant and common hen 

 are by no means uncommon, and the peculiar form 

 and colour of plumage, together with the wild and 

 suspicious mien, are handed down through several 

 generations. A hybrid was shot in a wild state in 

 the woods at Wolterton, West Norf , December, 1S54, 

 apparently a cross between a pheasant and a Cochin 

 China fowl ; and in November, 1848, was killed at 

 Snettisham, in the same neighbourhood, a hybrid 

 between the pheasant and black-grouse. — (See 

 " Birds of Norfolk.") 



The Rev. J. Wood, in his "Natural History," 

 mentions that the turkey and guinea fowl have 

 been known to mate with the pheasant. The cock 

 pheasant is a very pugnacious bird, and the author 

 just quoted tells us that it can maintain a slout 

 fight with the barn-door cock, and often comes off 

 victorious by his irregular mode of proceeding, for, 

 after making two or three strokes at his enemy, up 

 goes the pheasant into a tree to breathe, leaving the 

 cock looking about for his antagonist. Presently, 

 while his opponent is still bewildered, down comes 

 the pheasant again, makes another stroke or two, 

 and retires to his branch. The cock gets so 



puzzled at this mode of fighting that he often yields 

 the point. 



There is another variety of pheasant found in our 

 wojds and preserves, introduced many years ago from 

 China (/". torqiiatits), chiefly distinguished by a white 

 ring round its neck, which has so intermingled with 

 the common sort that it is difficult at the pi-esent time 

 to find a specimen of the old English type without 

 some traces, however slight, of the ring-neck and other 

 marked features of this Chinese bird. The author 

 of the " Birds of Norfolk " says he has been informed, 

 that no little difficulty is sometimes experienced by 

 gamekeepers, from the fact of the eggs of the ring- 

 neck pheasant hatching more quickly than those of 

 the common pheasant, and hence should a mixed 

 "clutch" of eggs be placed under a hen, which is 

 very likely to happen when supplies are purchased 

 from different places, she conies off with her first 

 hatched young, leaving perhaps a majority of good 

 eggs still unincubated in the nest. 



In olden time the pheasant, like the peacock, was 

 considered a royal bird, and the great ones of the 

 earth used to swear by it. Gibbon, the historian, gives 

 the following account of the origin of this custom. 

 Shortly after the taking of Constantinople by the 

 Turks, a chivalrous meeting was convened at Lille, 

 by Philip, Duke of Burgundy, to concert measures for 

 the defence of Christendom. In the midst of the 

 banquet, a gigantic Saracen entered the hall, leading 

 a fictitious elephant with a castle on his back. A 

 matron in a mourning robe, the symbol of religion, 

 was seen to issue from the castle ; she deplored her 

 oj^pression, and accused the slowness of her cham- 

 pions. The principal herald advanced, bearing on 

 liis fist a live pheasant, which, according to the rites 

 of chivalry, he presented to the duke. At this extra- 

 ordinary summons, Philip, a wise and aged prince, 

 engaged his person and powers in a holy war against 

 the Turks. His example was imitated by the barons 

 and knights of the assemljly ; they swore to God, the 

 Virgin, the ladies, and i\\e pheasant. 



The food of the pheasant in its wild state appears 

 to be of a very varied character, consisting of grain of 

 all kinds, seeds, green leaves, insects, slugs, &c. Yarrel 

 says he has several times seen tliem pulling down 

 ripe blackberries from a hedge-side, and later in the 

 year, has seen them fly up into high bushes to pick sloes 

 and hzw^. The roots of ranunculus, bulbosus and 

 ficaria (the Ijuttercup, pilewort), and crow's-foot, form 

 a large portion of its food in the spring. The quantities 

 of noxious insects and grubs destroyed by these birds 

 is something extraordinary. Some years since, Mr. 

 Milton, of Great Marlborough Street, found in the 

 crop of a cock pheasant S52 larvas of tipulce, or crane 

 flies, those long-legged insects popularly known as 

 daddy-long-legs. A correspondent of the " Sporting 

 Magazine" writes, that no fewer than 1225 of these 

 destructive larva; were taken from the crop of a hen 

 pheasant. No doubt, adds Mr. Curtis, in his work on 



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