STRUCTURE, FOOD, AND HABITS. 



reeds, and here and there pastures and fields are found, are 

 its chosen places of abode. Nor must well-cultivated and 

 grain-growing fields be wanting where this bird is to do well. 

 It neither likes the bleak mountain country nor dry sandy 

 places ; nor does it frequent the pine woods unless for protec- 

 tion against its enemies, or during bad weather, or at night. " 



" In our own country/' says Macgillivray, " its favourite 

 places of resort are thick plantations, or tangled woods by 

 streams, where, among the long grass, brambles, and other 

 shrubs, it passes the night, sleeping on the ground in summer 

 and autumn, but commonly roosting in the trees in winter." 



Like the domestic fowl, which it closely resembles in its 

 internal structure and its habits, the pheasant is an 

 omnivorous feeder ; grain, herbage, roots of the wood anemone, 

 berries, and other small fruits, worms, small field slugs, 

 insects, acorns, beech mast, are alike acceptable to it. 

 Naumann gives the following detailed description of its 

 dietary on the Continent. " Its food consists of grain, 

 seeds, fruits, and berries, with green herbs, insects, and 

 worms, varying with the time of year. Ants, and particularly 

 their larvae, are a favourite food, the latter forming the chief 

 support of the young. It also eats many green weeds, the 

 tender shoots of grass, cabbage, young clover, wild cress, 

 pimpernel, young peas, &c., &c. Of berries : the wild 

 mezereum (Daphne mezereum), wild strawberries (Fragaria), 

 currants, elderberries from the species Sambucus racemosa, 

 S. nigra, and S. ebulus ; blackberries (Rubus ccpsius,R. idoeus, 

 and R. fruiticosus) ; mistletoe (Viscum album) ; hawthorn 

 ((Jratcegus torminalis). Plums, apples, and pears it eats 

 readily, and cherries, mulberries, and grapes it also takes 

 when it can get them. In the autumn ripe seeds are its chief 

 food, it eats those of many of the sedges and grasses, 

 and of several species of Polygonum, as P. dumetorum; black 

 bindweed (P. convolvulus)- knot grass (P. aviculare) ; and 

 also those of the cow-wheat (Melampyrum) ; and acorns, 

 beech mast, &c., form a large portion of its food in the latter 



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