COMMON PHEASANT. 



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the wildness of its nature, as to the care and expense bestowed 

 to that end by noblemen, and other considerable landed pro- 

 prietors, without which the breed would, in all probability, 

 have been long since extinct. Independent of the beauty of 

 its plumage as an object of acquisition, the high estimation 

 it bears at the tables of the wealthy and luxurious proves too 

 tempting an inducement for the poacher, whose facilities are 

 greatly increased by the peculiar habits of the species. 



Woods that are thick at the bottom, with long grass kept 

 up by brambles and bushes, thick plantations, or marshy 

 islands and moist grounds overgrown with rushes, reeds, or 

 osiers, are the favourite resorts of Pheasants, in default of 

 which they take to thick hedgerows, but can seldom be in- 

 duced to remain long on any ground bare of shelter, however 

 undisturbed. Wood and water are indispensable. 



The short crow of the males may be heard in March, and 

 the females begin to lay their eggs in April, and hatch them 

 by the end of May or the beginning of June. They make 

 but little nest upon the ground, in which they deposit from 

 ten to fourteen eggs, which are of a uniform olive brown 

 colour, one inch ten lines long by one inch five lines in 

 breadth. The number of eggs that are occasionally found 

 together appear to prove that two hen Pheasants will some- 

 times lay in one nest ; and where game is strictly preserved, 

 and the quantity considerable, Pheasants' eggs are occasion- 

 ally found in the nest of the Partridge, so unsteady are they 

 in their half reclaimed state. They are very partial also to 

 making their nest and laying their eggs in moist and thick 

 clover bottoms, where they are very likely to be exposed and 

 mowed out, and it is a good practice with gamekeepers to 

 hunt such favourite grounds just before and at the commence- 

 ment of the laying season, to disturb the birds continually in 

 these spots, and thus induce them to go to nest in places 

 where their natural process is less likely to be interfered with. 



