8 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PHEASANTS. 
imperfect attempts of a young fowl, may be heard frequently. It is followed, and 
not preceded as in the game cock, by the clapping of the wings; the pheasant and 
the domestic cock invariably reversing the order of the succession of these two 
actions. Like the domestic fowl, pheasants will also answer any loud noise, occurring 
either by day or night; they have been noticed replying regularly to the signal 
gun at Shorncliffe, which is fired at sunrise and sunset, and this in coverts situated 
some miles distant; and the practice with the heavy guns at the various military 
stations will often cause a chorus of “cucketing”’ in all the coverts for a great 
distance round. 
The display of the plumage during courtship by the males varies in almost 
every species of gallinaceous birds. That of the pheasant has been carefully described 
by Mr. T. W. Wood, in his interesting article on “The Courtship of Birds” (The 
Student, April, 1870). Pheasants seem to possess no other mode of display than 
the lateral or one-sided method. In this the males disport themselves so as to 
exhibit to the females a greater number of their beautiful feathers than could, other- 
wise be seen. at one view. The peculiar attitude assumed by the male is correctly 
shown in the vignette on page 18; the wing of the side nearest the female is partly 
opened and depressed, precisely in the same manner as performed by the male of the 
common fowl, and in addition the tail is expanded, and the upper surface turned 
towards the same side, whilst thé bright vermilion skin around the eye is greatly 
extended, and the little purple aigrettes erected. Singular modifications of this 
method of display occur in the Argus and the Golden Pheasant and other species, 
which will be noticed in the chapters relating to those birds. 
In a state of nature there is little doubt that the pheasant is polygamous. 
The males are armed with spurs, with which they fight, the stronger driving away 
the weaker, and the most vigorous propagate their kind. 
The nest of the female is usually a simple hollow scraped in the ground. 
After depositing her eggs (usually about eight or nine in number) she is deserted 
by the male, and the task of incubation and rearing the young depends on her 
alone. The eggs vary in colour from a greenish brown to a greyish green; in size 
they are, on the average, an inch and five-sixths in length, by an inch and five- 
twelfths in width. The period of incubation is twenty-four days. 
Hen pheasants, like common fowls, not unfrequently have nests in common, 
in which case as many as eighteen or twenty eggs will be found together. Some- 
times three hens will take to the same nest, and as many as thirty eggs have been 
seen resulting from their copartnership. It is still more singular that the pheasant 
and the partridge often share the same nest. Mr. Walter Yate, of Pemberton, 
Shropshire, stated, “About a week ago one of my workmen informed me that he 
had found a nest containing both partridge’s and pheasant’s eggs. I accompanied 
him to the place, and there saw the pheasant and partridge seated side by side 
