OTHER BIRDS 89 



unlike most that have been here, was for ever 

 crowing and clapping his wings. He always 

 roosted on the same tree, and every evening 

 just before it got dark took care to let us 

 know that he was going to bed. 



In October, 1910, there was a cock that 

 used to amuse himself by sitting for half an 

 hour at a time on the broad top of a clipped 

 yew hedge. Several hens would sometimes 

 sit there with him : once we saw seven on the 

 top of the hedge at once. 



I have heard that in Japan at the time of 

 an earthquake, extraordinary commotion is 

 noticed among pheasants. There was a 

 slight shock of earthquake here on December 

 1 7th, 1896, at 5-30 in the morning, and a 

 working man who happened then to be near 

 the Fox-cover was especially struck by the 

 noise that pheasants were making in the 

 wood. 



Nearly every year we have partridge 

 visitors, a family party; in 1895 there were 

 thirteen young ones with the old pair, and 

 last year, 1911, again there were twelve. 

 They always seem happy and light-hearted; 

 they dance and jump, they play games like 

 "hide-and-seek" or "kiss-in-the-ring," round 

 about and in and out the drooping feathery 

 branches of a deadara, that just touch the 

 ground, and in the intervals they sun them- 

 selves on the walks. 



I heard very few corncrakes in 1911, but 



