POULTEY TRIBE. 251 



considerably beaten, his plumage ruffled, and his 

 feathers smeared with blood. An older bird of the 

 same breed was procured to take his place, who 

 soon shared the same fate, and a third also. At 

 length the owner of the fowls, vexed at these 

 repeated losses, and unable to account for them, 

 bought a large, strong, courageous bird, and armed 

 him with sharp steel spurs. Next morning, be- 

 neath the oak tree, there was found lying dead, 

 not the cock, but his vanquished foe, a large, well 

 fed, old cock- pheasant. 



Mr. Knox, in his " Game-birds and wild-fowl," 

 gives the following striking account of the " crow- 

 ing" of pheasants. "The habit of crowing, in- 

 dulged in at all hours of the day during the breed- 

 ing season, is not restricted to the purposes of love 

 or the hour of rest. The same note is uttered on 

 quitting the perch at early dawn ; and the sound 

 of thunder or distant cannon never fails to produce 

 it. How often have I heard it elicited by the 

 booming of the Portsmouth guns, though at a dis- 

 tance of thirty miles, when the weather was calm 

 or the wind in a favourable quarter. 



But the most remarkable instance of this kind 

 that ever came under my notice occurred on the 

 llth March, 1850. It was a clear sunny day, the 

 air cold and frosty with a gentle breeze from the 

 north-east. I had been riding through Charlton 



