100 PHASIANID.E. 



in summer, beans, peas, and buckwheat, mixed together, 

 leaving the whole crop standing on the ground ; the strong 

 and tall stalks of the beans carry up, sustain, and support 

 the other two, and all three together afford, for a long time, 

 both food and cover. Maize or Indian corn is, however, 

 preferred to any other food. 



During summer, till the old birds have completed their 

 seasonal moult, Pheasants do not roost constantly jn trees, 

 but afterwards they may be heard, about dusk, to go up to 

 their roost, by the flutter of their wings, and their peculiar 

 notes ; the male giving his short chuckling crow, and the 

 female her more shrill piping whistle, as soon as they get 

 upon their feet on the branch : both generally roost upon the 

 smaller trees, and near the stem. Unless disturbed, and 

 obliged to secure their safety by flight. Pheasants seldom 

 use their wings, except, as before noticed, at night and 

 morning ; nor have they much occasion, as a mode of 

 progression, for they get over the ground with remark- 

 able speed by running. But when well on the wing they 

 fly with tremendous force, and plate-glass windows ^ inch 

 thick have been smashed into fragments by birds deceived 

 by the reflection in a mirror facing the window, or attracted 

 by a light inside ; and also when pursued by a hawk. As 

 regards the duration of flight, Mr. Cordeaux states that 

 when shooting in the marshes near Grimsby on the Lincoln- 

 shire side of the Humber, which is there nearly four miles 

 across, a man working on the sea embankment called his 

 attention to two Pheasants which had just flown over from the 

 Yorkshire side, and which, on being shot, proved to be hens 

 in very good condition. Pheasants can also swim with con- 

 siderable facility, both old and young birds having occasion- 

 ally been known to take to the water of their own free will. 

 Although capable of being rendered tame, and even in 

 individual cases disagreeably familiar, the Pheasant never 

 becomes domesticated in the same sense as our common 

 fowls ; the young, even when hatched under a domestic hen 

 and accustomed to be fed, always betaking themselves to 

 the covers on the approach of strangers. 



