THE BOOK OF MIGRATORY BIRDS 175 



around an old-fashioned flower-garden, along an jaisle 

 between lilacs, laburnums, and rhododendrons in bloom, 

 along one side of a cherry orchard, and eventually planted 

 me on a bench facing the extensive rearing-fields, where 

 refreshment was served. After about half an hour's chat 

 I had to undergo a punctilious introduction to a couple of 

 under-keepers. 



FAMILY AFFAIRS. 



The lord of the manor, or his lessee, wants as many 

 pheasants for the autumn shooting as can be conveniently 

 accommodated in the surrounding coverts, and the game- 

 keeper's future depends on the realisation of his ambition 

 to show a large head of game. "Phasianus colchicus " 

 and the allied breeds make a notoriously careless, shift- 

 less, selfish motherhood, and the slightest alarm will 

 usually cause a bird to desert her post at the sitting period. 

 At another time she will consider her own safety a good 

 deal more than that of her progeny. However superfi- 

 cially amorous Prince Colchicus may be, it is clear that 

 he takes no real interest in family matters, but prefers to 

 gallivant about. Any sort of a nest is tumbled together 

 under a bush or hedge, or in the undergrowth, wherein 

 is laid a clutch of fourteen or fifteen olive-brown and 

 minutely speckled eggs. It is admittedly the better way 

 to spend time systematically searching for these eggs, or 

 there will be a tremendous wastage in stock, so addicted 

 is the hen bird to shirking the full discharge of duties 

 incumbent on her by setting off with an incomplete brood, 

 thus deserting many valuable eggs perhaps just when they 

 are about to chip, with the result that carrion crows, rooks, 

 magpies, rats, &c., pounce upon them. At all times 

 pheasants of both sexes are incorrigible wanderers, the 

 careless mother going foraging long distances, minding 

 not if her family is fagged out, losing some of them before 

 the day is over, and taking not the trouble to look for 

 them. The result is that a few succumb to "clash," 

 leaving only two or three survivors to tell the story of their 



