96 THE CASPIAN AREA 



hidden. At ordinary times and while searching for food, the cock slinks about 

 with stooping body, and only when on the alert raises his ear-tufts. Generally 

 the tail is carried horizontally, but at certain seasons both this and the ear-tufts 

 are elevated, when the bird struts about with the breast well forward and the neck 

 thrown back, clapping his wings, and now and then gliding in a curious manner 

 along the ground. In Europe, pairing-time lasts throughout April and May, the 

 hens beginning to sit on their eight to fifteen eggs during the latter month. The 

 eggs are well concealed in some hollow in the ground lined with twigs, moss, 

 leaves, etc. In shape they are round oval, and in colour uniformly brown, olive-brown, 

 or greenish. After twenty-five days, during which period the cocks do not take the 

 slightest notice of their partners, the young are hatched. When a week old, their 

 tail and wing feathers begin to appear, and when the size of quails they are 

 almost fledged and capable of flying short distances, and soon after this are able to 

 follow their mother to the branches of a tree to roost ; the mother and her family 

 keeping together until autumn. When surprised, young pheasants chirp, and 

 when excited, utter a low harsh " girr," followed by a high whistling " rick " ; when 

 frightened, they lie with their bodies pressed close to the ground till the danger is 

 past. The danger-signal of the hen is a low hissing "she," but occasionally a 

 sonorous "kak kak." The crow of the cock is a rapid repetition of "or-ork." Old 

 pheasants are easily frightened, and when danger threatens retain the habit of 

 pressing the body close to the ground, and trying to hide the head. Although 

 pheasants have a noisy and apparently heavy flight, when once well on the wing 

 they fly fast and straight, gliding down from a height without moving the wings. 

 On the ground they walk with long strides, and generally try to escape by 

 running, their speed being very great, and the distances traversed on foot often 

 very considerable. 



Young birds eat small insects, especially the so-called ant-eggs, which the hen 

 finds for them. Adult pheasants feed, according to the time of year, either on 

 insects and snails or on leaves, berries, beechmast, acorns, corn, and other seeds. 

 Foxes are the principal enemies of these birds, but cats, martens, hedgehogs, and 

 rats also kill them or rifle their nests. Peregrines, kites, buzzards, sparrow-hawks, 

 and other birds-of-prey also destroy a considerable number in some districts, while 

 ravens, crows, magpies, and jays steal both the eggs and the helpless young. A 

 large number of pheasants perish through storms, floods, and continued rainy 

 or frosty weather, the young being particularly sensitive to wet. If a pheasant 

 escapes from all these dangers, and last, but by no means least, the gun of 

 the sportsman or the net of the poacher, it may reach the age of fifteen years. 

 Pheasants are unsuited for domestication, as they are restless and continually 

 trying to escape, so that the only way to breed these birds is to put the eggs of 

 wild pheasants under domesticated hens. 



The common pheasant, whose native home is the Caspian district and the 

 countries to the west of the same, has many relatives in the Caspian and Chinese 

 areas. The species or races west of the meridian of Calcutta form a group 

 characterised by having the feathers of the lower part of the back chestnut-brown 

 in colour, while in those found to the eastward of the same line the lower part of 

 the back is always slatey grey. Moreover, all the northern species are distin- 



