RING-NECKED PHEASANT 319 



covered was but one and one-fifth miles. One bird, however, went 

 six miles and another three miles." Merriam (1889) records that a 

 pair in Oregon traveled in two months 50 miles from the point 

 where they were released. 



Pheasants, like domestic fowls, are fond of dusting themselves to 

 get rid of lice, and dusting places are common in pastures where these 

 birds are found. Pheasants spend the night on the ground and also 

 in trees, the latter especially where foxes or other ground enemies 

 abound. Several times early in the morning I have seen pheasants 

 roosting in trees, singly, and once as many as five. As the sun rose, 

 their breasts glistened like burnished copper in its rays. 



Under complete protection, where shooting is not permitted, as in 

 public parks, pheasants become very tame, but when persecuted they 

 quickly develop great wariness, and they seem to be able to distin- 

 guish the harmless farm laborer from the man with a gun. Any un- 

 usual noise, such as blasting, makes pheasants crow, and they are 

 usually sensitive to any shock, whether from an explosion or an 

 earthquake, and respond by crowing. This response to earthquakes 

 or distant explosions is apparently due to the sense of feeling rather 

 than of hearing. In Japan pheasants are believed to give warnings 

 of earthquakes. It is found that they respond to earthquake shocks 

 so slight that they are unnoticed by human beings, and the birds may 

 in this way foretell a more severe earthquake shock that follows. 

 Hartley (1922) states that " during the World War the pheasants in 

 England developed into fairly responsible sentinels against Zeppelin 

 attacks. The birds seemed particularly sensitive to far-off explo- 

 sions and a raid generally was heralded by a concerted crowing of 

 cocks." 



William Beebe (1918) writes: 



In the spring the cock pheasant invites his mate or mates to share or 

 appropriate some especially delectable morsel of food. The accompanying 

 movement is a picking up and dropping of the food, thus calling it to visual 

 attention, while at the same time a low chuckle or crowing sound is uttered. 



Voice. — The courtship " song " of the cock pheasant is his crow, 

 which suggests a juvenile bantam rather than the noble pheasant. 

 It is a challenge call by which the cocks announce their territorial 

 holdings. This crow, which consists of a long followed by a short 

 note, can be heard from a considerable distance, but when the ob- 

 server is near at hand he hears also a hurried clapping of the wings, 

 which is heard loudest following the crow and not preceding it, as 

 in the case of the domestic cock. If, however, the bird is seen at 

 this time it will be observed that he flaps his wings two or three 

 times almost inaudibly before the crow, and follows the crow with a 



