2 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PHEASANTS. 
the Reeves pheasant, reaching in that species to a length exceeding five or six feet. 
They are all destitute of feathered crests or fleshy combs, but are furnished with 
small tufts of feathers behind the eyes. In their native state they are essentially 
forest birds, frequenting the margins of woods, coming into the open tracts im 
search of food, and retreating into the thick underwood at the slightest cause for 
alarm. The common pheasant, which has been introduced from its native country, 
Asia Minor, for upwards of a thousand years, though spread over the greater part 
of Europe, still retains its primitive habits. 
“Tt is,’ says Naumann, “certainly a forest bird, but not in the truest sense 
of the term; for neither does it inhabit the densely wooded districts, nor the depths 
of the mixed forest, unless driven to do so. Small pieces of grove, where deep 
underbush and high grass grow between the trees, where thorn hedges, berry- 
erowing bushes, and water overgrown with reeds, and here and there pastures and 
fields are found, are its chosen places of abode. Nor must well-cultivated and 
grain-growing fields be wanting where this bird is to do well. It neither 
likes the bleak mountain country nor dry sandy places; nor does it frequent the 
pine woods unless for protection against its enemies, or during bad weather, or at 
night.” 
“Tn our own country,” says Macgillivray, “its favourite places of resort are 
thick plantations, or tangled woods by streams, where, among the long grass, brambles, - 
and other shrubs, it passes the night, sleeping on the ground in summer and autumn, 
but commonly roosting in the trees in the winter.” 
Like the domestic fowl, which it closely resembles in its internal structure 
and its habits, the pheasant is an omnivorous feeder; grain, herbage, roots, 
berries, and other small fruits, insects, acorns, beech mast, are alike acceptable to 
it. Naumann, in his work on the “ Birds of Germany,” gives the following detailed 
description of its dietary on the Continent. “Its food consists of grain, seeds, 
fruits, and berries, with green herbs, insects, and worms, varying with the time of 
year. Ants, and particularly their larvee, are a favourite food, the latter forming 
the chief support of the young. It also eats many green weeds, the tender shoots 
of grass, cabbage, young clover, wild cress, pimpernel, young peas, &c., &c. Of 
berries: the wild mezereum (Daphne Mezerewm), wild strawberries (Hragaria), 
currants, elderberries from the species Sambucus racemosa, S. nigra, and S. Hbulus ; 
blackberries (Rubus cesius, R. ideus, and R. fruticosus); misletoe (Visewm album) ; 
hawthorn (Orategus torminalis). Plums, apples, and pears it eats readily, and 
cherries, mulberries, and grapes it also takes when it can get them. In the autumn, 
ripe seeds are its chief food, it eats those of many of the sedges and grasses, and 
of several species of Polygonum, as P. dumetorum; black bindweed (P. convolvulus) ; 
knot grass (P. aviculare); and also those of the cow-wheat (Melampyrum); and 
acorns, beech mast, &c., form a large portion of its food in the latter months of 
