56 THE PHEASANT SUBFAMILY 



that of any of the Grouse tribe, which have traditions of their own 

 among the game-birds. 



As soon as the full clutch of eggs is laid, the male retires and 

 leaves the work of brooding entirely to the female, who has the 

 reputation of being if not a bad at least an indifferent guardian. 

 And this fact tells heavily on the chicks, for, if alarmed, she flies 

 off and leaves them to their fate. Returning later, if she recovers 

 two or three of her brood she is content ; the rest of necessity perish. 

 Yet, while incubating, she bestows some evidence of care, since, on 

 leaving the nest in the morning and evening for food, she will cover 

 the eggs with leaves, and takes the precaution to quit and return to the 

 nest on the wing so as to leave no tracks. She has a curious habit, 

 Mr. Millais tells us, on leaving the nest after having first laid an egg, 

 of walking along and flicking bits of grass from side to side and over her 

 back, a habit displayed also, according to Mr. Wormald, by wild duck 

 and reeves. On the whole, however, the maternal instinct seems to 

 be defective, since she will lay in nests made up for her by careful 

 keepers, especially if one or two dummy eggs are added ! A case 

 was recorded in Country Life, 1907, of a female which was found 

 sitting on a blackbird's nest in a low thorn bush. When found, two 

 young blackbirds were discovered in the nest, and on the ground 

 beneath were her own eggs, which had apparently fallen over the 

 edge of the nest when laid, a fact unperceived by the bird! 

 Pheasants eggs have also been found in deserted nests of owls, hawks, 

 wood-pigeons, squirrels, wild ducks, corncrakes, capercaillie, grouse, 

 grey-hen, and common-fowl. Two pheasants have been found sharing 

 the same nest, and a pheasant and partridge have also been found 

 practising copartnership. She will further often kill her young when 

 hatched, as also will blackheaded-gulls, owls, and wild duck, but in 

 these latter cases apparently only when the young are weaklings. 



If it were not common knowledge that the young of game-birds 

 have a longitudinally striped down-covering, the fact has been referred 

 to with sufficient frequency in these pages to have impressed it upon 



