344 PHASIANIDiE. 



The places best adai)ted for Pheasants arc thick woods' 

 in the neighbourliood of water, where there is abundance 

 of shelter on the ground, in the shape of furze-bushes, 

 brambles, tall weeds, rushes, or tussack grass ;* for they, 

 pass their lives almost exclusively on the ground, even 

 roosting there, except in winter, when they fly up in the 

 evening, and perch on the lower boughs of middling- 

 sized trees. In April or INIay, the female bird scratches 

 for herself a shallow hole in the ground under the shelter 

 of some bushes or long grass, and lays from ten to 

 fourteen eggs ; but not unfrequently she allows might to 

 prevail over right, and appropriates both the nest and 

 eggs belonging to some evicted Partridge. The situation 

 of the nests is generally known to the keepers, and all 

 that are considered safe are left to be attended to by the 

 owner. Such, however, as are exposed to the depredations 

 of vermin or poachers are more frequently taken, and the 

 eggs are placed under a domestic hen. Much, to the 

 encouragement of dishonest practices. Pheasants' eggs 

 have a marketable value ; and it is to be feared that many 

 proprietors of recently purchased estates are not suffi- 

 ciently cautious in stocking their woods with none but 

 eggs honestly come by. 



Pheasant chicks are able to run about and pick up 

 their own food soon after they have escaped from the egg. 

 This consists of grain, seeds, small insects, especially ants 

 and their eggs, and green herbage. When full grown, 

 they add to this diet beans, peas, acorns, beech-mast, and 

 the tuberous roots of several wild plants. A strip of buck- 

 wheat, of which they are very fond, is sometimes sown 

 for their special benefit along the skirt of a plantation. 

 To turnips, red clover, and young wheat, they are very 

 destructive ; their large size giving them a facility of doing 

 mischief enjoyed by no other common bird that frequents 

 cultivated fields. In seasons of scarcity they will enter 



* Aira ccespitosa. 



