250 



VERTEBRATA. 



^-^^'^^ 



The dosrrintion of tho habits of the cominoii |>hcasaiit will serve, with, little variation, for the 



•whole group. Its favorite haunts are 

 woods and thickets, always in tlie 

 ncicrlihorhood of water, and it fre- 

 quently takes to niaishy islands, over- 

 grown with rushes or osiers. In the 

 summer the pheasants roost on the 

 ground, but during the latter part of 

 the autumn and winter they pass the 

 night upon trees. They feed upon 

 grain and seeds of various kinds, inter- 

 mixed with fruits, blackberries, sloes, 

 haws, acorns, green herbage, roots, and 

 insects. In their movements thev 

 closely resemble the common fowl, 

 walkinjT and runnincr in the same man- 

 ncr, and with great swiftness — in fact, 

 rarely taking wing unless pressed with 



f' 'WJ '.i^^r- ~ ' ■ •^s-=i''^*$?'^^^^^' ■ Vi'^ immediate danfjer. They are polvjra- 



■ "^ -^#*a?ts "«-- -V . ~%- n' , : . •/ £;-■ v?i mous, and the males and females only 



associate during the breeding season, 

 which is in the spring. At this time 

 tlie males, which have kept together 

 during the winter, separate, each taking 

 up a particular station, where he col- 

 lects a number of females round him, 

 by strutting about, clapping his wings, 

 and crowing. The females deposit from 

 ten to fourteen eggs among long grass 

 or bushes, the nest consisting merely of 

 a small hollow lined with dried leaves; 

 they are then deserted by the male, 



and the whole labor of incubation and bringing up the young brood is left entirely to them. In 



THE COMMON PHEASANT OF EUROPE. 



r/^^.?^ 



THE RIXG-XECKED PHEASANT. 



