A CHAIR OF ECONOMIC ORNITHOLOGY 131 



insects, grubs, and larvae of insects. Later in the season, 

 insects and roots of weeds, with bits of decayed vegetable 

 matter, such as rotten potatoes and turnip tops, are their 

 chief support, and as the spring advances, the roots of 

 weeds beginning then to acquire a certain succulency of 

 consistence, constitute almost their only food. To enable 

 them, however, to find this kind of food in quantity, there 

 must be arable or ploughed ground within their reach, where 

 the roots of the weeds are exposed. In general, upon 

 opening a Pheasant's crop, a mixture of food such as has been 

 mentioned will be found, although on some occasions it is 

 filled entirely with one substance. For instance, the crop 

 of an individual killed upon 1st February, in marshy ground 

 on the edge of a small sheet of water, was found filled 

 exclusively with wireworms : it contained upwards of two 

 hundred of these vermin. In the end of the same month, or 

 the beginning of March, having observed several Pheasants 

 feeding very busily on a ploughed field, I had one killed 

 as he went to roost. His crop was very full, and was 

 found exclusively stuffed with weed roots. These roots 

 were soft, quite full of sap, and had been broken into pieces 

 of about three-fourths of an inch in length. In both these 

 instances, the birds had thriven amazingly well on such 

 diet; they were particularly fat and plump, and in high 

 condition." 



Pheasants are not "wild animals," but they are wild 

 birds, and they do not readily submit to domestication. 

 If grain is lavishly strewn in the poultry yard, the domesti- 

 cated poultry will gorge themselves, and will then sit about 

 and wait for a recurrence of the bounty. But Pheasants 

 prefer to search for their food, and even if an unstinted 

 supply is offered to them in their coverts, will wander far 

 from home, picking as they go. Every gamekeeper knows 

 that the way to check this idiosyncrasy is to meet it by 

 scattering the " feed " among dead leaves, or beneath straw, 

 or in some way hiding it so that it must be sought for. A 

 certain amount of grain food is, of course, always acceptable, 

 but unless the birds are in very excessive numbers, and are 

 not being artificially and skilfully fed a combination of 



