STRUCTURE, FOOD, AND HABITS. 19 



next day, and the young birds are now doing well." Other 

 cases of cock pheasants incubating were recorded in The Field 

 of July 5 and 19, 1892. 



Pheasants usually commence to lay in this country in 

 April or May, the date varying somewhat with the season and 

 the latitude. The eggs of penned birds have been found in 

 the first week of April, and even in the last week of March (see 

 The Field, April 13, 1901). In consequence of the artificial 

 state in which they are kept in preserves, and the super- 

 abundance of food with which they are supplied, the produc- 

 tion of eggs, as in domesticated fowls, often takes place at 

 most irregular periods. Many instances are recorded of 

 perfect eggs being found in the oviducts of pheasants shot 

 during the months of December and January. For example, 

 Sir D. W. Legard, writing from Granton, Yorkshire, on 

 December 27, 1864, said : " At the conclusion of a day's 

 covert shooting last Tuesday, a hea pheasant, which had been 

 killed, was discovered by a keeper to have a lump of some 

 hard substance in her ; he opened her in my presence, when, 

 to my astonishment, he extracted an egg perfectly formed, 

 shelled, and apparently ready to be laid ; it was of the usual 

 size, but the colour, instead of being olive, was a greyish- 

 white." 



A nest containing an egg has been noticed as early 

 as March 12, and many cases are recorded of strong 

 nests of young during the first few days of May. Lord 

 Warwick's keeper, J. Edwards, in May, 1868, wrote as 

 follows : " Yesterday (the 6th inst.), whilst searching for 

 pheasant eggs in Grayfield Wood, I came upon a nest of 

 thirteen pheasant eggs, twelve just hatched and run, and one 

 left cheeping in the shell. The bird must have begun to lay 

 in the middle of March, as they sit twenty-five days, and 

 do not very often lay only every other day, at least at the 

 commencement." Other cases earlier by three or four days 

 than this instance have been recorded. The late .Rev. Gr. C. 

 Green, of Modbury, Devon, wrote : " On Sunday, April 18, 



c2 



