50 THE GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL 



Nidification. Semi-domestication appears to have caused the Pheasant 

 to become monogamous, like domesticated descendants of the Wild Duck. In its 

 native wilds the Pheasant is strictly monogamous, but in this country the male bird 

 generally associates himself with several females, as many as his prowess or his 

 charms can keep or attract, and upon them devolves all care of the eggs and 

 young. Instances, however, are on record where cock Pheasants in our islands 

 have been known to assist, not only in the duties of incubation but in attending 

 to the brood. The Pheasant does not appear to have been polygamous long 

 enough to have certain recognised pairing stations or "laking" places, but towards 

 the end of March the cock-birds begin to crow and fight for the hens, each 

 collecting and maintaining as many as he can. The hens go to nest in April 

 and May. The inherent timidity or shyness of this species causes it to 

 breed in seclusion, and the great nesting grounds are well in the cover 

 of plantations and woods, although many odd birds nest wide amongst growing 

 crops, or in the hedge bottoms. Sometimes the nest is placed, by strange caprice, 

 in an old squirrel's drey, or on the top of a stack; and I have known it in the 

 centre of a tuft of rushes within a couple of yards of a much-frequented footpath. 

 Each female makes a scanty nest, under the arched shelter of brambles or dead 

 bracken, and often beneath heaps of cut brushwood which has been left upon 

 the ground all winter. It is little more than a hollow, in which a few bits of 

 dry bracken or dead leaves and scraps of grass are collected. The eggs are usually 

 from eight to twelve in number ; sometimes as many as twenty are found ; and I 

 have known of an instance in which a single hen has brought off twenty-six 

 chicks from as many eggs ! They vary from brown through olive-brown to bluish- 

 green in colour, and are unspotted. Some years ago, in Northumberland, accom- 

 panied by the late Mr. Seebohm, jun., I took a clutch of the normal colour, amongst 

 which was one of a delicate greenish-blue. They measure on an average l - 8 inch 

 in length by 1'4 inch in breadth. Incubation lasts, on an average, twenty-four 

 days. The Pheasant rears only one brood in a year; but if the first clutch is 

 unfortunate, others are laid, as hens have been known to sit as late as September. 

 When leaving her nest for a short time to feed, the hen carefully covers her eggs 

 with leaves, and flies from her home when she quits it voluntarily, returning 

 in the same manner. The young are seldom fully grown before the end of 

 July. 



Diagnostic characters Phasianus, with no white collar, and with 

 reddish-brown wing coverts, and purplish-red rump (typical colchicus) . Length : 

 male, 30 to 37 inches, including tail; female, about 24 inches, including tail. 

 The two central rectrices of the cock Pheasant vary considerably in length, 

 according to the age of the bird, old ones being often met with in which 

 these feathers measure upwards of 24 inches. The Pheasant has been known to 

 hybridise not only with several of its allies, but with the Black Grouse, and the 



