By the Rev. A. C. Smith. 167 



pests. I do not of course allude to those cases where the species is 

 encouraged to multiply to excess ; when the balance of nature 

 being destroyed, confusion ensues as a necessity, as would be the 

 result in the unnatural multiplication of almost any species in the 

 whole animal kingdom. During winter the males congregate ; 

 but separate to their several domains as spring draws on. Many 

 sportsmen have endeavoured to assign to a distinct species the 

 Ring-necked, the Bohemian, and the pied varieties of this bird, 

 but as these variations are by no means permanent or hereditary, 

 ornithologists have wisely declined to admit them to any separate 

 rank. The Pheasant has an innate shyness or timidity, which 

 nothing seems able to overcome : though reared under a domestic 

 hen, and though fed from the hand from its earliest days, it never 

 attains confidence, but hurries to the shelter of thick cover at the 

 first symptom of alarm. Though it retires to roost on the branches 

 of trees, when once disturbed from the position it has taken up, it 

 does not attempt to perch again during the remainder of the night ; 

 but on such occasions will crouch in the longest grass and under 

 the densest bramble it can find. It crows on the least provocation, 

 not only on retiring to roost, and at early dawn, but during the 

 night as well as during the day when any unusual noise disturbs 

 it ; and a sudden clap of thunder will cause every pheasant in the 

 wood to sound his call note of enquiry. 



TETRAONIDiE (The Grous). 

 Very closely allied to the Pheasants comes the family of Grous, 

 a race highly prized in this country, and containing more than 

 half the species of Ground birds known to have occurred in 

 Wiltshire. In habits, in their mode of nesting on the ground, and 

 in the food they seek, they very much resemble those last described. 

 In like manner their head is small, beak strong and convex, wings 

 short, feet stout, and tarsus feathered, but the distinguishing 

 characteristic "consists in the elevation and diminution of the hind 

 toe, which in this family becomes exceedingly short, and in the 

 succeeding family disappears altogether. Their flight though rapid 

 and direct, is heavy, but they walk and run with great agility, and 



