PHEASANTS: IN PEACE 113 



be induced to pair, and manage their affairs like 

 partridges. 



The hen pheasant, while somewhat lacking in the 

 common-sense of the partridge, does not deserve 

 her proverbial reputation for being a bad mother. 

 The chief charge against her is that she delights to 

 kill off her chicks by dragging them through all the 

 wet grass she can find ; it is rather the chicks them- 

 selves that run into danger by foraging ahead of 

 their mother, who, as a rule, does not lead, but 

 follows, her brood. She scarcely can be expected 

 to do more than is in her power. And what is in 

 her power she does. I believe that the cause of the 

 liability of pheasants' eggs, sat upon by their owners, 

 not to hatch together is slight chilling. This means 

 that, though the eggs may have been sat upon the 

 full time, they have not been sat upon the full time 

 at the full temperature. The frequency with which 

 several pheasant eggs remain in the nest unhatched 

 after the brood has run in such striking contrast 

 to the occasional waste egg or two in the nests 

 of partridges is not because the eggs contained 

 unfertilized germs, or were fatally chilled during 

 hatching, but were spoiled before being sat upon at 

 all. This is proved, I think, by the fact that, of 

 eggs laid in genial weather, and waiting to be sat 

 upon in genial weather, comparatively few are found 

 to be addled, whatever the proportion left unhatched 

 in the nest. 



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