366 GALLlN.f:. 



during moonlight niglits to the gun of the poacher. Tlie 

 roosting-phice of the male bird is very (easily discovered, 

 for he invariably "chuckles" when he first "trees," or 

 goes to perch; and the female usually utters a faint chirp 

 on the same occasion. During summer and the period of 

 moulting the Pheasant rarely })erclies, hut retires for the 

 night to the longest grass, or other thick cover, and does 

 not begin to " mount" again until to waixls the end of Sep- 

 tember or the beginning of October, having at that pciriod 

 renewed its ])lumage. Where pheasants are numerous, 

 the males are in general found associated during the 

 winter, sej)arate from the females ; and it is not until 

 about the end of March that they allow the approach 

 of the latter without signs of displeasure, or at least 

 of indifference. At the above-mentioned time, however, 

 the male bird assumes an altered appearance ; the scarlet 

 of his cheeks, and around his eyes, acquires additional 

 dejjth of colour, and he walks with a more measured step, 

 with his wings let down, and his tail carried in a more 

 erect jjosition. Being polygamous, he now takes posses- 

 sion of a certain " beat," from whence he drives every 

 male intruder, and commences his " crowing," attended 

 with a i)eculiar clap])ing of his wings as a note of invita- 

 tion to the other sex as well as of defiance to his own. 

 The female makes a very iuartificialnest upon the ground, 

 in long grass or thick underwood, and not unfrequently 

 in fields of clover ; she lays from ten to fourteen eggs of a 

 clear oil -green colour. The young are hatched du)ing 

 the months of June or July, and continue with the hen 

 until they begin to moult and assume the adult plumage ; 

 after this period the young males are only to be distin- 

 guished from the older birds by the comparative shortness 

 and bluntness of the tarsal s])ur. 



