56 PHEASANTS 



attached to, yet not actually forming part 

 of the body of the chick. 



Finally, on the twenty -third or twenty- 

 fourth day, the chick has filed away a 

 crack at the broad end of the egg with its 

 hard 'egg tooth,' and casting off the 

 dried and no longer useful remnants of the 

 fold that enveloped it and the sack that 

 used to do its breathing, steps out into 

 the world. ^ 



As soon as the chicks are dry, usually 

 about twenty-four hours after hatching, 

 the hen wanders off with the nide — the 

 correct term in the parlance of sport for a 

 family of pheasants, said parlance having 

 rather fallen into disuse since the days 

 when men spoke of a * congregation ' of 

 plovers, or a * murmuration ' of starlings — 

 her active little charges finding their 

 living among ants, insects, worms and 

 small molluscs. 



The pheasant chick is certainly a 

 hardier member of the community than the 



^ The changes inside the egg are as given in Foster and 

 Balfour's Elements of Embryology, 



