PROrORTIOX OF COCKS TO HEXS. n 



mule birds, for they assert that they are very pugnacious 

 and troublesome to the younger hens, and are supposed 

 to derive much satisfaction in destroying their eggi^ 

 whenever they discover their nests ; whether this is the 

 case I will not pretend to say, but I know that this opinion 

 prevails amongst gamekeepers. 



Latham supposes that the male bird does not always 

 change its plumage from age, and Daniel, in his " Eural 

 Sports," states that he once shot a fall grown young 

 pheasant with the variety of plumage. The general 

 opinion which prevails amongst sportsmen is that it is 

 age which produces the change of the plumage of the 

 hen pheasant. Some years ago, it was sujjposed by 

 gentlemen preserving pheasants that one cock was 

 sufficient in the breeding season for a dozen or more 

 hens ; this has been found by subsequent experience to 

 be fallacious, and in the battues that now usually take 

 place on the two or three last days of pheasant shooting 

 the hens are shot. I have been at several of these 

 battues in Norfolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire, and Oxford- 

 shire wdiere this was the case. It is difficult to say 

 what should be the proportion of cocks to hens. If I 

 might venture to give an opinion, from long experience, 

 I should say about one cock to four or five hens. I am 

 ojiposed to the male pheasants having too numerous a 

 seraglio. A cock may be frequently found with a nide 

 of young pheasants ; from this circumstance I cannot help 

 suspecting that he is assisting the hen in some of her 

 maternal duties. 



The pheasant makes her nest on the ground, and lays 

 from ten to fifteen eggs. The young ones follow the 

 mother as soon as out of the shell, like a breod of young 

 partridges. 



F -1 



