52 THE PHEASANT SUBFAMILY 



recorded of two hen pheasants which he shot as they landed on the 

 Lincolnshire side of the Hurnber, near Grimsby, after having flown 

 over from Yorkshire, a distance of four miles. This must have been 

 a very exceptional flight indeed, judging by the two following 

 instances. Just twenty-two years ago, Mr. Millais tells us, he was 

 shooting at Foyers, Loch Ness, when three pheasants took wing from 

 the south side of the loch, and attempted to cross the lake, which at 

 this point was about a mile and a half wide. The birds rose to 

 a considerable height, and then, after having flown about three- 

 quarters of a mile, all alighted on the water, when they turned round 

 and began to swim shorewards, but were captured from a boat. 

 A precisely similar occurrence was witnessed by Mr. Donald Campbell. 1 

 Shooting at Dunstaffnage, Oban, he saw five cocks and a hen attempt 

 to fly across Loch Etive, necessitating a flight of at least half a mile. 

 When about half-way across one of them was seen " to fall, or alight, 

 on the water, and its example was immediately followed by the other 

 five. Fortunately the son of the Ardchattan gamekeeper, who was in 

 a boat on the loch at the time, observed the occurrence, and rowed to 

 the spot ; but as he had some distance to go, by the time he reached 

 the birds they were very much exhausted and half drowned, and were 

 drifting with the tide. He got them into the boat and took them 

 ashore, and, after being well dried and placed in warm boxes near 

 a good fire, they all eventually recovered." Be it noted the day was 

 cold and frosty, and there was a slight fog on the water. We call 

 attention to the weather conditions because cases too numerous to 

 quote are on record which show that the pheasant, from the chick 

 onwards, will take to the water readily, at need, and swims well. One 

 or two illustrations of this rather striking fact may, however, well be 

 given. In one case a hen pheasant with her brood was flushed. She 

 flew across a pond about nineteen feet wide and four feet deep. 

 Immediately the young scattered, but one, not more than fourteen 

 days old, ran down to the water, entered it without hesitation, and swam 



1 Tegetmeier, On Pheasants, p. 12. 



