252 BRITISH LAND BIRDS. 



forest and had just begun to descend the northern 

 slope of the downs by a rugged path above the 

 village of Graffham, when I halted a moment to 

 admire the magnificent panoramic view that here 

 suddenly bursts upon the sight. I had not gazed 

 long, before a deep, hollow booming, or protracted 

 concussion (for it was rather felt than heard) shook 

 the earth for some seconds. At the same moment 

 a pheasant, in an adjoining copse, announced his 

 consciousness of the shock by a sudden crowing, 

 which had hardly ceased before a second explosion, 

 succeeded after another interval by a third, the 

 loudest of all, induced every cock-pheasant in the 

 woods of Lavington to sound his note of alarm. 

 On my way home I passed several persons who 

 had heard the noise and had noticed its effect upon 

 the pheasants, especially one party of labourers 

 working close by a large preserve, who told me 

 that a loud and long-continued crowing proceeded 

 from all parts of the wood for many minutes after 

 the last explosion. No one was able to conjecture 

 the cause of the sound, nor was the mystery ex- 

 plained till the following day, when intelligence 

 arrived of the awful explosion at Messrs. Curtis 

 and Harvey's powder mills at Hounslow, nearly 

 fifty miles distant in a direct line from the spot 

 where I heard it." 



Besides the common pheasant, there are several 



