346 THE BIRDS OF THE BRITISH ISLES 



been influenced and altered by artificial conditions. It is a 

 woodland species, thriving best in protected coverts ; it roosts 

 in trees for protection, but is, in other \vays, a ground bird, 

 nesting on the level and running swiftly to escape an enemy, 

 unless forced to take flight, when it rises with a whirr of round 

 wings, often " rocketing " over the tree tops ; it is then swift, 

 but incapable of really sustained flight. If it can sneak through 

 the herbage with lowered head it tries this dodge, and will 

 crouch in cover ; the plumage of the female then gives her 

 protection. Young birds, if alarmed, will run from the coops 

 and crouch in the grass. The controversy about the economic 

 value of the Pheasant is complicated by political and class 

 bias ; very opposite opinions have been expressed. As the 

 bird is omnivorous, eating vegetable and animal food, much 

 may be argued for and against it ; certainly it is unfair to 

 judge by individual cases. One bird's crop may be filled with 

 germinating grain, and another with wire-worms. A favourite 

 but apparently trivial food is the spangle gall on the oak, a 

 mixture of animal and vegetable. Old birds will, with impunity, 

 eat the froghopper nymphs in the " cuckoo-spit," and these, 

 killed in hot water, do the young no harm, but when the froth 

 is thick on the grass many downy young birds perish ; they 

 swallow the living insect, and are choked by the froth it 

 exudes. The best natural food is the pupce of ants, popularly 

 known as "ants' eggs.'^ 



In spring the male indulges in display, showing off his 

 charms as he runs round the hen with much of the sideling, 

 wing-trailing action of the domestic cock. He is pugilistic, 

 ever ready to use the spurs with which his feet are armed ; 

 before a fight the rivals face with lowered heads and ruffled 

 necks, and strike like game-cocks with the back of the feet. 

 The loud, sudden crow of the cock is immediately followed by 

 a rustle of the plumage and flapping of the wings, a familiar 

 wooiland sound in spring. It is well know, that thunder, an 



