314 PHASIANIDJE. 



short of suffocation by the remedy is found to be a cure for 

 the complaint. 



The food of Pheasants in a wild state consists of grain, 

 seeds, green leaves, and insects. I have several times seen 

 Pheasants pulling down ripe blackberries from a hedge 

 side, and later in the year have also seen them fly up into 

 high bushes to pick sloes and haws. Mr. Selby mentions 

 he has observed that the root of the bulbous crowfoot, Ra- 

 nunculus bulbosus, a common but acrid meadow plant, well 

 known as the buttercup, is particularly sought after by the 

 Pheasant, and forms a great portion of its food during the 

 months of May and June ; and another friend has noticed 

 that they also feed on the pilewort crowfoot, Ranunculus 

 ficaria. At the latter end of autumn I have found their 

 crops distended with acorns of so large a size, that they 

 could not have been swallowed without great difficulty. 

 Towards and throughout the winter, Pheasants in pre- 

 serves, to prevent them from straying away in their search 

 for food, require to be supplied constantly with barley in 

 the straw, or beans, or both ; and one good mode of in- 

 ducing them to stop at home is to sow in summer, beans, 

 peas, and buckwheat, mixed together, leaving the whole 

 crop standing on the ground ; the strong and tall stalks of 

 the beans carry up, sustain, and support the other two, and 

 all three together afford, for a long time, both food and cover. 



During summer, till the old birds have completed their 

 seasonal moult, Pheasants do not roost constantly in trees, 

 but afterwards they may be heard, about dusk, to go up to 

 their roost, by the flutter of their wings, and their peculiar 

 notes ; the male giving his short chuckling crow, and the 

 female her more shrill piping whistle, as soon as they get 

 upon their feet on the branch : both generally roost upon 

 the smaller trees, and near the stem. Unless disturbed, and 



