24 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. 



the young returning home at night with a regularity that 

 has given rise to the proverbial saying that " Curses, like 

 chickens, return home to roost," 



Examples of the tameness of individual pheasants are not 

 rare ; to the fearless nature of a sitting hen I have already 

 alluded. The males become oven more familiar, and at 

 times aggressive ; one of the most amusing examples was- 

 recorded some time since by a correspondent, who wrote as 

 follows : " Having recently been on a visit to a friend of mine 

 living in Kent, I had an opportunity of there witnessing th& 

 effect of an extraordinary antipathy to crinoline exemplified 

 in a fine cock pheasant which inhabited, or rather infested,, 

 the grounds and shrubbery. He had been originally, I believe,, 

 reared on the premises, but had become as wild as any of his 

 fellows, and, after having been lord of a harem of some seven 

 or eight ladies last spring, who had all reared their families 

 and gone off with them, had been left in loneliness, with his- 

 temper soured against the female sex at large. His beat was 

 for about a quarter of a mile between the house and the- 

 entrance-gate, and on the approach of anything in the shape 

 of crinoline his temper was roused to such a degree that he 

 attacked it with all his might and main, flying up at the 

 unnatural appendage, pecking fiercely with his bill, and 

 striking out at it with his spurs like any game-cock. I 

 witnessed all this with my own eyes, and was not surprised 

 at the terror he had created among the females by whom he 

 was positively dreaded, and not without reason. One lady had 

 promised to protect herself by taking a terrier as her 

 guardian, who at first offered fight in her defence, but was 

 soon compelled to show the white feather, and at the very 

 sight of his antagonist ran off with his tail between his legs. 

 At length, however, he met with his master in the shape of a 

 gipsy-woman, who, being of course uncrinolined, and there- 

 fore considering herself unjustly attacked, set upon him, and 

 not only pulled out his tail, but crushed him with her foot^ 

 and left him on his back apparently in the agonies of deatli.. 



