64 Pheasants and A(/riculture 



the seeds of weeds. Early in the month, pine needles and the tubers of the 

 lesser celandine occurred plentifully, and later, spangle galls from oak- 

 leaves were generally found. The 40 crops contained between them 64 

 germinating wheat grains, probably taken by only three or four of the 

 birds, for of the separate crops only three included any, and the whole 

 135 crops did not average a grain apiece. 



February, 8 crops, of which only three contained much food of any 

 sort, chiefly weeds (lesser celandine, dead nettle, etc.) and a little grass 

 and clover. One bird, VIII 8, had done good service by eating 100 

 plantain seeds and 2y."jG grubs of a Bibio fly. These grubs, to some extent 

 injurious as root feeders, are gregarious in habit, and the pheasant had 

 apparently had the luck to come across a nest or two of them. 



March, 26 crops. Not a very good month for the reputation of the 

 pheasant, which begins to shew too great a partiality for grass and 

 clover, and also steals grain. Only one crop, IX 1, however, is noted 

 as containing "a good deal" of clover, and this has some compensation 

 in 1806 seeds of spurrey. One has 30 grains of germinating wheat, and 

 one 75 grains of germinating oats, while 370 grains of germinating oats 

 are found in the crop of a bird shot in a "grass and barley" field. 

 Bibio grubs occur again. 



April, 22 crops, 20 of them innocent or beneficial. Two of the birds 

 are, however, distinctly blameworthy, XVII 2, containing much clover, 

 126 grains of germinating barley and 97 sainfoin seedlings, against 

 which it has only two wireworms to shew; while XVII 3 has much 

 sainfoin and 36 germinating barley grains. 



The insect food becomes more plentiful, and click beetles (the parents 

 of the wireworm) and plant-lice figure in the diet, in which also a.great 

 number of duckweed capsules are noticeable. 



Maij, 16 crops. The food is very miscellaneous — a little grass and 

 clover mixed with the leaves of weeds; many weed seeds, especially 

 chickweed; a good many pine seeds and various insects, including 

 garden chafers. One of the birds, XX 3, had, however, raided a sainfoin 

 crop, and the crop of another, XXI 6, contained a reprehensible amount 

 of clover. 



June, 7 crops. Too small a number to warrant much generalisation. 

 Their contents were chiefly bulbous buttercup stems and seeds, together 

 with insects. 



July, 16 crops. The food is almost entirely weed seeds, insects and 

 cereal grains. Towards the end of the month, a good deal of the 

 grain is clearly not hand-fed, and, in estimating the relation of the 



