STRUCTURE, FOOD, AND HABITS. 19 



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 Ganton, Yorkshire, on 

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

 covert shooting last Tuesday, a hen 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 

 the 12th of March, and many cases are recorded of strong- 

 nests of young during the first few da^ys of May. Lord 

 AVarwick'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 Rev. Gr. C. 

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

 1875, as my curate was returning from taking the duty in a 

 neighbouring church, a hen pheasant started from the road- 

 side hedge close to the town, and fluttered before him. While 

 watching her movements he saw eleven young pheasants, 

 ajDpareutly newly hatched, fluttering in the hedge, and at the 

 edge of a pond close by. They soon scrambled into some 

 cover, and the mother bird flew off to rejoin them from 

 another quarter. I understand, from inquii-y, that this is not 

 a solitary instance of such an early brood of pheasants in 

 South Devon.'' 



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