176 



THE PHEASANT. 



When fully on the wing the flight of this bird is very 

 strong and rapid. 1 As an instance of this, it may be men- 

 tioned that about fifteen years ago, during a cover shooting 

 at Marchmont House, a Pheasant, which had sprung out 

 of an adjoining plantation, dashed through a pane of the 

 drawing-room window, and struck its head so severely 

 against a large mirror which was hanging on the opposite 

 wall that it cracked the centre of the thick plate glass 

 of the mirror and fell dead on the floor. Several ladies 



1 Mr. Griffith found by experiment that the average flight of three Pheasants 

 in the open, the time being carefully taken by a stop-watch, was at the rate of 

 16^ yards per second, 990 yards per minute, or 34f miles per hour. See The Fidel 

 of 19th February 1887. 



