COMMON PHEASANT. 325 



the smaller trees, and near the stem. Unless disturbed, and 

 obliged to secure their safety by flight, Pheasants seldom 

 use their wings, except, as before noticed, at night and 

 morning : nor have they much occasion, as a mode of pro- 

 gression ; the facility and speed with which they can get 

 over the ground by running is quite surprising. Pheasants 

 do not pair, and except during the spring, the males and 

 females do not even associate. During the shooting season 

 the males are found together, and are also observed to 

 be much more wary and on the alert than the females. 

 An old cock Pheasant immediately on hearing a dog give 

 tongue in a wood where he is, will foot away to the farthest 

 corner, particularly if the wood be open at bottom, and 

 from thence run one dry ditch or hedgerow after another 

 for half a mile to the next covert; but a hen Pheasant 

 seems to trust to her brown colour to escape detection, and 

 squatting in any bit of long grass that is near her, often 

 surprises and startles the young shooter, not a little, by 

 bouncing up with a rattling noise close at his feet, and the 

 poor frightened bird is frequently indebted to the sensation 

 thus created for a clear escape. The brown earth-like 

 colour of the plumage of the females of several species of 

 Pheasants seems to be a bountiful provision, not only for 

 their individual safety, but in a degree for the preser- 

 vation of the whole race. Mr. Jesse, in his Gleanings, 

 has truly observed that, " while we admire the dazzling 

 plumage of a male bird, we may wonder why the female 

 appears so infinitely below him in the scale of beauty. Is 

 it because she is to be considered as more degraded, or as 

 an inferior being ? When we see the male expanding his 

 rich and varied plumage in the sunbeams, let us not forget 

 that on the female devolves all the offices of love and 

 affection. She hatches, feeds, and protects, at the risk of 

 her life, her helpless young ones ; and what we may con- 



