ot BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
gathered from the following anecdote of a great 
game-preserver, who having a great shooting party, 
and not finding as many Pheasants as he expected, 
used some very strong language to his keeper, and 
told him to go at once to some covert where the 
great head of game were supposed to be, till at last 
the keeper could stand it no longer, and said to his 
master, “‘ You know, sir, as well as I do, it’s no use 
going there yet; the train isn’t in and the birds 
haven't arrived.” 
The Pheasant has now a very wide geographical 
range, as 1t has been imported into Australia, where 
it appears to flourish and to have attained to con- 
siderable numbers.* 
The natural food of the Pheasant consists of grain 
of all sorts, seeds of various plants, berries, worms 
and grubs, and (especially for the young birds) ants 
and ants’ eggs. Various artificial foods are adver- 
tised and sold, all of which profess to be more or less 
certain specifics against gapes and all other diseases 
to which the young birds are lable; but any account 
of these or their relative value does not appear to me 
to come within the limits of these notes. 
The nest of the Pheasant is generally a mere hole 
scraped in the ground, under cover of some low bush 
or long grass, or standing corn. 
The Pheasant is too well known, and too easily 
* See ‘ Zoologist’ for 1863, p. 8493. 
