no TEN YEARS OF GAME-KEEPING 



dead before deserted). When some of a partridge's 

 eggs are hatched considerably in advance of the 

 rest, so that some chicks are ready to have a peep at 

 the world while others yet are struggling to get out 

 of the shell, the cock partridge takes charge of them. 

 The hen pheasant is less fortunate than the hen 

 partridge. She has no attentive husband all to 

 herself : always close at hand, and often by her 

 side, maybe sharing her thoughts of that great day 

 when they shall lead forth a tribe of sprightly chicks 

 to catch flies among the lilies of the fields, hunt 

 for insects lurking among the stems of corn, feast 

 on juicy seeds of grass and weeds, scramble for 

 the plunder of ants' nests, bask in the smile of the 

 sun, or seek shade beneath the soft herbage of 

 summer. Often I have thought of this loneliness 

 of the pheasant hen, and have pitied her as she 

 sat through some sweet day when it is good to 

 wander. 



It is no uncommon thing for a pheasant to leave 

 half her eggs unhatched, and go off with what chicks 

 she has, not because the rest of the eggs were 

 unhatchable, but because they did not hatch with 

 the rest. Yet I do not think she means wilfully 

 to desert the chicks struggling within the shell, or 

 possibly hatched, but still wet and unable to run. 

 The cause of the trouble is that the first-hatched 

 chicks by leaving the nest show that they are ready 

 to go, and the mother, in her anxiety for them, 



