The Common Pheasant 207 



accommodated in the surrounding coverts, and the game- 

 keeper's future depends on the realisation of his ambition 

 to show a large head of game. ' ' Phasianus colchicus " 

 and the allied breeds make a notoriously careless, shift- 

 less, selfish motherhood, and the slightest alarm will 

 usually cause a bird to desert her post at the sitting 

 period. At another time she will consider her own 

 safety a "good deal more than that of her progeny. How- 

 ever superficially amorous Prince Colchicus may be, it is 

 clear that he takes no real interest in family matters but 

 prefers to gallivant about. Any sort of a nest is tumbled 

 together under a bush or hedge, or in the undergrowth, 

 wherein is laid a clutch of fourteen or fifteen olive-brown 

 and minutely speckled eggs. It is admittedly the better 

 way to spend time systematically S( arching for these eggs, 

 or there will be a tremendous wastage in stock, so addicted 

 is the hen bird to shirking the full discharge of duties 

 incumbent on her by setting off with an incomplete brood, 

 thus deserting many valuable eggs perhaps just when they 

 are about to chip, with the result that carrion crows, rooks, 

 magpies, rats, &c, pounce upon them. At all times 

 pheasants of both sexes are incorrigible wanderers, the 

 careless mother going foraging long distances, minding 

 not if her family is fagged out, losing some of them before 

 the day is over, and taking not the trouble to look for 

 them. The result is that a few succumb to ' ' clash," 

 leaving only two or three survivors to tell the story of their 

 wretched life. Temporarily or permanently deserted 

 eggs, some already chipped, are each season recovered and 

 brought home to the incubator (which often has a holding 

 capacity of 300) , where the chicks made their exit within 

 a few hours. The chief value of an incubator lies in the 

 fact that eggs of uncertain age can be dealt with easily, 

 and the chicks dried off as soon as they leave the shell ; 

 for this drying process represents a very critical stage. 

 Further, when chicks are hatched by an ordinary brood- 

 hen they can be removed to the incubator's drying 

 chamber in order to avoid the risk of being crushed to 

 death by the fussy foster-mother. 

 The pheasants on any estate could soon be numbered 



