EASTERN CHINESE RING-NECKED PHEASANT 123 



During the period of extreme youth of the brood, the hen, when suddenly flushed, 

 flies off with a roar of wings and a warning cackle, which the chicks understand perfectly. 

 They run, scattering in every direction, and after a long period the low cluck of the 

 mother is heard, summoning them. They creep, never run, towards her, and even in the 

 short grass are almost impossible to detect. Now and then her cluck will continue for 

 an hour or more after the chicks have reached her. Whether this is from sheer 

 emotional impetus, or from knowledge of a single chick which has not, and perhaps 

 never will, find its way to her, is an open question. Usually the chicks obey swiftly, 

 and in a few minutes the whole family has moved off to safer quarters. 



After such an experience, if one throws a small stone in the direction the pheasants 

 have gone, the slight but unusual noise will call forth the warning call, the chicks will 

 scatter, but the hen will not fly, merely crouching flat, waiting to see if more immediate 

 danger threatens. 



A hawk or eagle will cause a crouch, and if the danger becomes acute, the hen flies 

 at once and dives into the thickest cover. I have several accounts of hens which have 

 stood up to the attack of a small hawk and covered the retreat of their young. 



Young hens lay fewer eggs than those a year or two older, but the general number 

 runs from six to twelve. The birds sometimes breed twice, and if the last nest is 

 destroyed, another may be made very late in the year. Where Ring-necks are very 

 abundant, and the number of the cocks has not been reduced by shooting, the breeding 

 may be very irregular and extend over a considerable period of time. At an altitude of 

 nine hundred and fifty feet a nest with three eggs was found on February 17, 19 10, but 

 this is an unusually early date, and disastrous in this case, for the succeeding March was 

 bitterly cold with heavy falls of snow. April, May and June are the hatching months. 

 On the other hand, young birds hardly able to fly have been recorded at the end of 

 November, and Maguire writes, that ''on Christmas eve, while walking the eleven miles 

 from Tung Ling to Tatung, in the province of Anhwei, I came upon a young brood 

 with not a single bird larger than a bamboo partridge, and which flew with great 

 difficulty, upon receiving the hen's signal to scatter." 



Owing to the omnipresent cultivation in many parts of Eastern China, the 

 vegetarianism of the coolies, and the excellent shelter and abundant food, pheasants 

 occasionally become so abundant that the normal safeguards are destroyed. Cocks may 

 become so numerous in a locality as to interfere seriously with the breeding. They 

 disturb the hens while sitting on the eggs, and often acquire the egg-eating habit, if 

 they do not indeed actually kill young birds. Two cocks have been observed to fight so 

 fiercely and continuously, that they have driven a hen from the nest and smashed all 

 the eggs. 



The fighting begins in open years about the end of December, and may last until 

 June. One observer tells, of four pairs of cocks going fast and furious within an area 

 of a few yards. The victor crows once or twice and flies off immediately, not waiting to 

 take on a second opponent. 



When feeding the head is raised every second or two, bringing the senses of sight 

 and hearing into play. When concealed near feeding birds, the snapping of a single 

 twig will bring the whole covey to attention with a sharp whistling warning, while the 

 slightest crunch of a foot on the gravel will send every bird into a crouch. They are 



