STRUCTURE, FOOD, AND HABITS. 15 



to feed I was much astonished to find that she was sitting on 

 nine pheasant's eggs and thirteen of her own, and, after sitting 

 the usual time, hatched them all out." Mr. R. Bagnall-Wild 

 records that ''in June his keeper noticed three partridge 

 nests, with thirteen, eleven, and eleven partridges' eggs, and 

 four, two, and two pheasants', respectively, in them. He 

 carefully watched, and in all three cases found that the 

 pheasants were hatched with the young partridges; and in 

 September the young pheasants still kept with their respective 

 coveys of partridges." Sometimes the hen pheasant, and 

 not the partridge, is the foster parent. In the neighbour- 

 hood of Chesham, on May 6, 1873, three pheasants' nests 

 were observed to contain the following eggs : the first, on 

 which the hen was sitting, twenty-two pheasant's and two 

 French partridge's eggs; the second, eleven pheasant's and 

 five French partridge's eggs ; and the third, six pheasant's 

 and seven French partridge's eggs. Mr. W. D. Collins, of 

 Cuckfield, records the fact that he found a grey partridge 

 sitting on twelve of her own eggs, nine eggs of the red-legged 

 partridge, and nine pheasant's eggs, all the three species 

 having laid in the same nest. Mr. Higgins, of Hambledon, 

 states that " A pheasant hatched out, in a piece of vetches of 

 mine, seven partridges and five pheasants on July 6. She 

 sat on nine of her own eggs and eight partridge eggs." In 

 some cases the nest is even of a more composite character, 

 and the eggs of the common fowl, and those of partridges 

 and pheasants, have all been found together; and instances 

 have been recorded of wild hen pheasants laying in the nests 

 of tame and also of wild ducks, and in the nests of the corn- 

 crake and woodcock. 



Although there is usually some attempt at concealment 

 under covert, pheasants' nests are not infrequently placed, 

 even by perfectly wild birds, in very exposed situations. Mr. 

 John Walton, of Sholton Hall, Durham, related the following 

 account of the singular tameness of a wild-bred bird : " A 

 hen pheasant a perfectly wild one so far as rearing is 



