45'2 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [anNO 1754. 



keep together till the following spring. They cannot be made tame. Many 

 have, to their disappointment, attempted it by raising them under hens; but, as 

 soon as hatched, they escaped into the woods, where they either provide for 

 themselves, or perish.' 



Mr. Brooke, surgeon of Maryland, says, ' They breed in all parts of Mary- 

 land, except near the eastern shores. They lay their eggs in nests made of dry 

 leaves by the side of a fallen tree, or at the root of a standing one; they lay 

 from 1 2 to 1 6 eggs, and hatch in the spring. I have found their nests, when I 

 was a boy, and have endeavoured to take the old one, but never could: she 

 would let me put my hand almost on her before she quitted her nest; then she 

 would flutter just before me for 100 yards, or more, to draw me off from her 

 nest, which could not afterwards be easily found. The young ones leave the nest 

 as soon as hatched, and, I believe, live at first on ants and worms; when they 

 are a few days old, they hide themselves among the leaves, that it is hard to find 

 them. When they are grown up, they feed on the berries, fruits, and grain, of 

 the country. Though the pheasant hatches many young at a sitting, and often 

 sits twice a year, the great number and variety of hawks among us, feeding on 

 them, prevents their increasing fast. The beating of the pheasant, as we term 

 it, is a noise chiefly made in the spring by the cock birds. It may be distinctly 

 heard a mile in calm weather. They swell their breasts like a pouting pigeon, 

 and beat with their wings, which sounds not unlike a drum. They shorten each 

 sound in a stroke, till they run into one another undistinguished.' 



Lahontan, in his voyage to North America, vol. i, p. 67, speaking of the 

 fowls about the lakes of Canada, mentions this same pheasant as follows: 

 " Their flapping makes a noise like a drum, all about, for the space of a minute; 

 then the noise ceases for half a quarter of an hour, after which it begins again. 

 By this noise we were directed to the place, where the unfortunate moor-hens 

 sat, and found them on rotten mossy trees. By flapping one wing against the 

 other, they mean to call their mates, and the humming noise, thus made, may 

 be heard a quarter of a league off. This they do only in the months of April, 

 May, September, and October; and, which is very remarkable, a moor-hen 

 never flaps in this manner but on one tree. It begins at break of day, and gives 

 over at 9 in the morning, beginning again an hour before sun-set, and flaps its 

 wings till night." This is all tlie light I could gather, relating to the pheasant 

 of North America. 



The Otis minor,* anas campestris, canne petiere, or the field-duck, was taken 

 in the west of England, and laid before the Royal Society about 3 years ago: 

 and as no gentleman present knew the bird, Mr. Hauksbee sent it to Mr. E. 



• This bird is the otis tetrax of Linneus, and is figured in the first volume of Edwards's Glean- 

 ings, pi. 251. 



