PHEASANTS IN COVERT AND AVIARY 



leaves and scraps of grass are collected. The eggs are usually 

 from eight to twelve in number ; sometimes as many as 

 twenty are found, and I have known of an instance in 

 which a single hen has brought off twenty-six chicks from as 

 many eggs. They vary from brown through olive-brown to 

 bluish-green in colour, and are unspotted. The late Mr 

 Seebohm, Jun., and myself took a clutch some years ago in 

 Northumberland of the normal colour, amongst which was 

 one of a delicate greenish-blue. They measure on an average 

 1.8 inch in length by 1.4 inch in breadth. Incubation lasts, on 

 an average, twenty-four days. The Pheasant only rears one 

 brood in the year ; but if the first clutch is unfortunate, other 

 eggs are laid, as hens have been known to sit as late as 

 September. When leaving her nest for a short time to feed, 

 the hen carefully covers her eggs with leaves, and invariably 

 flies from her home when she quits it voluntarily, returning 

 in the same manner. The young are seldom fully grown 

 before the end of July." 



J6 



