PHASIANUS COLCHICUS. 



543 



" A fine healthy bird," he said, "but he knew the cause. It 

 was the dry husks of the oats the old hen left which had 

 plugged up the outlet of the stomach. He lost several the same 

 way, and knew." He took his knife, opened the stomach, and 

 showed me the cause to be as he said. Like all short-winged 

 birds, the pheasant flies with great force. " On April 1st, 1892, 

 the inmates of Craigend Park, Liberton (near Edinburgh), heard 

 a thud and the smash of glass. On entering the drawing-room 

 a fine cock pheasant was seen dead on the floor. A hole in the 

 centre of a large pane of plate-glass accounted for its death. It 

 might seem impossible that a plate of glass a quarter of an inch 

 thick could be broken by the bird ; but when the velocity of 

 flight and weight of the pheasant (2J lbs.) is kept in view the 

 pressure will be understood. The bird was the victim of an 

 optical delusion. On the sun rounding west the trees reflected 

 on the plate-glass, explains the incident — confirmed by the fact 

 that blackbirds and other birds often fly against this window ; 

 and, in a house near, a couple of sparrow-hawks recently shared 

 the fate of the pheasant." As a result of semi-domestication, 

 pied and white pheasants are common. Like domestic hens, 

 the female sometimes crows, struts, and imitates the cock, as 

 ladies now do the manners of men in the present manhood- 

 mania of women, " run to seed f but Dr Parkhurst, of New 

 York, says — " If they succeed in convincing man that the only 

 difference is a physical structure, there ends the influence of 

 woman, and doing an injury to themselves which must be paid 

 for in some way." Selby says, " The female pheasant is often 

 subject to that singular lusus naturce, the acquisition of 

 plumage resembling the male, the cause of which, from 

 investigations, may be attributed to age, or to some derangement 

 of the generative organs, as the birds in confinement ever after- 

 wards proved barren." Were this the case with the human 

 lusus naturce, woman would pause before she entirely assumed 

 the habits of man ; but of this there is no fear, for Nature 

 reigns supreme. I once had a pair of male " ruff" pigeons, 

 which acted as both cock and hen to each other for a couple of 

 years — the connection being only broken when a true hen 

 appeared. 



