PHEASANTS AND AGRICULTURE. 



By 31i,s.s a. F. C.-H. EVERSHED, 



Natural Sciences Tripos and Diploma in AgricuUure of the 

 University of Cambridge. 



WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 



CECIL WARBURTON, xM.A., 

 Zoologist to the Royal Agricultural Society. 



Food of Pheasants, 



The following Report on the contents of .'511 pheasant crops presents the 

 results of a very laborious investigation undertaken by Miss A. F. C.-H. 

 Evershed during I'Jla under my direction. Only those who have them- 

 selves attempted it will fully appreciate the amount of time and trouble 

 involved in identifying the fragments of insects and plants met with in 

 such a research. 



It is important that two things should be borne in mind. In the 

 first place the Report purports to be a statement of facts; deductions 

 are left for the individual reader to draw. In any case generalisations 

 are difficult, since it is impossible satisfactorily to balance, say, wire- 

 worms against stolen wheat grains, but beyond this the circumstances 

 of the particular bird have to be taken into account. For example, the 

 birds numbered XII i and XXIX 6 both contained a large number of 

 oat grains, but they were far from equally guilty. The former, shot on 

 March 30, had raided the newly-sown crop, while the latter, shot on 

 August 29, had doubtless obtained the grain from stubble. 



In the second place, since the Report is concerned simply with crop 

 contents, and does not include any observations in the field, it can 

 obviously have no bearing on cases where it is alleged that pheasants 

 have done harm by wantonly pulling up grass or seedlings which they 

 have not eaten. 



Each reader, then, must be left to draw his own conclusions from the 

 statement of facts presented below, but it may perhajw be helpful if we 

 briefly analyse the nature of the food of the pheasant month by month 

 as far as it is revealed by the crops sent for examination. 



January, 135 crops, the contents of 40 being sent in one jar and of 

 50 in another. Beyond hand-fed grain, the bulk of the food consisted of 



