NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 61 



and development, for a coop of pheasants 

 is a common enough object in a country- 

 side, and no written matter is worth 

 anything beside the results of personal 

 observation. 



The average cock pheasant turns the 

 scales between 3 and S^ pounds, the hen 

 weighing nearly a pound less. It is an 

 average often exceeded, especially among 

 the offspring of a first- cross between 

 birds of a different race, who are generally 

 larger than either parent, although their 

 offspring again show a tendency to revert 

 to the normal. Cocks with one parent of 

 pure Mongolian blood commonly weigh 

 5 pounds and more. 



The expectation of life among pheasants 

 can only be bad, and the age to which a 

 pheasant can live if he escape the yearly 

 hazards of the shooting season and the 

 ordinary chances of existence, is an un- 

 certain quantity ; about fifteen years is 

 the limit of aviary experience, while at 

 Monteviot in Berwickshire a Bohemian 

 cock has been known for thirteen years 



