182 FRANK SCHLEY'S PARTRIDGE AND PHEASANT SHOOTING. 



March. The male only remains with the female until the 

 latter commences setting. They then keep by themselves 

 unless recalled by the female, when its eggs have been de- 

 stroyed. Pheasants have been taken young and tamed, 

 and their eggs have been hatched under the Domestic Hen, 

 but they seldom live until full grown. The nest is very 

 rudely constructed, consisting of only a few leaves laid in 

 a depression. The female places her nest on the ground in 

 some retired spot, frequently at the foot of a stump, bush, 

 tree, or log. The hen generally lays from six to twelve 

 eggs, of a yellowish color, and of an elongated oval, pointed 

 at one end. The young brood, as soon as they are free 

 from the shell, follow their mother in search of food. She 

 calls to them with a chuckling note, and when come upon 

 by a sportsman the young birds hide, and the hen resorts 

 to the same artifice as the Partridge (Ortyx) does to allure 

 the sportsman away from her young. In a short tame the 

 young birds become strong enough to fly a short distance. 

 The cocks do not assist the hen in taking care of the young 

 brood they scatter around singly, and frequently get to- 

 gether in small bands until Fall, when they all again asso- 

 ciate indiscriminately together in search of food, both 

 young and old. If the Spring is early, warm, and dry, the 

 young birds will be large enough to shoot by the 15th of 

 August, but if the Spring is late, and cold, and wet, the 

 brood will be small both in number and size of the birds. 

 I have shot birds of the young broods in Maryland and 

 Virginia, on the first day of August, that were apparently 

 as large as the old birds; and then again the next year, on 

 the first of the same month, I have sprung them when they 

 were not much larger than a Partridge, which was owing 

 altogether to a difference in the season. Take the seasons 

 on an average, the first of September is the proper time 

 to commence shooting the young broods. About the first 

 of September, as a general thing, the young birds are 

 equal in size, but not in weight, to the old ones ; and though 

 they have not the power and rapidity of flight of the old 

 birds, I have always found that by the first of September 



