NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 49 



time recorded of pheasants nesting on 

 pollards, or in old nests of hawks and 

 owls and deserted squirrels' dreys, some- 

 times at a height of thirty feet above the 

 the ground. Equally exceptional are the 

 instances of cock -pheasants taking on 

 themselves the cares of a family, though 

 there have been undoubted cases of cocks 

 sitting, assisting the hen in charge of the 

 brood, and even replacing her as guardian 

 of the chicks when some ill-chance had 

 removed her from the scene. 



Before the nest is filled, the pheasant 

 seldom takes the trouble to cover up her 

 eggs, and then only lightly, while the 

 partridge almost always covers her eggs 

 with great care. Many pheasant eggs 

 thus get spoiled by frost before the hen 

 has begun to sit. 



The rude scrape in which the first egg 

 is laid is improved and given more 

 semblance of a regular nest by the ad- 

 dition of leaves and feathers as the 

 loiter — common term among keepers 

 for the clutch of eggs — approaches 



