2G4 THE BIRDS OF DEVOX. 



no part of the United Kingdom -where the Pheasant, a most hardy bird, does 

 not do well, jirovided the country be such as suits its requirements. The first 

 essential is that there be plenty of water, and woods containing rough 

 undergrowth, in which this timid bird can shelter itself. It also loves a 

 district where there arc thick, old-fashioned hedgerows, with a good stock 

 of timber, especially oaks, as in the autumn the acorns constitute its 

 favourite food. In the blackberry season Pheasants wander far in search 

 of the berries, and most sportsmen must have noticed the luscious juice 

 oozing from the gape of the bird the gun has ju't dropped amid the fern. 

 Most berries are dear to the birds, and they thrive well in moorland 

 coverts where the whortleberry abounds. In long-protracted and deep 

 snows we have picked up dead and frozen hen Pheasants in the woods, 

 but we never knew a cock bird to succumb to the weather, however 

 severe. 



The day after a battue the survivors appear to be stunned and frightened 

 by the noise of the guns, as we have picked up uninjured birds squattirg 

 beneath the bushes. The short crow of the cock Pheasant, with the sound 

 of his clapping wings, may be heard in the s])ring-time in the woods he 

 frequents. This noise is intended to attract the hen birds, and is equally 

 a challenge to other cocks. The cock Pheasant is rather a noisy bird, 

 often bringing himself into trouble by his voice : thus, the cackling he 

 makes at roosting-time as he flies up into the trees betrays his perch to 

 the poacher ; his crow and his loud rustling wings, on being flushed in 

 cover, generally bring him to grief, when, had he risen quietly, as a 

 Grouse slips up from the heather, he might, perhaj)s, have got off without 

 attracting attention. He sometimes rises with reckless precipitation, and 

 colliding against a branch, falls wounded to the ground. As a rule, cock 

 Pheasants seek their safety by running through the covers ; it is only 

 when suddenly surprised they take wing ; and as they run off they drive 

 up the hens in selfish cowardice to screen their own retreat. Put these 

 tactics are of little avail, as the fatal fence is at last reached, Nvhere the 

 beater's stick compels them to come forth, and then there is the 

 " bouquet," to use the language of the battue, and the " warm corner," 

 where the long-tailed beauties rise by scores to fall again upon the sod, 

 to be carted off to the poulterer's shop. 



One day in August, on the other side of a narrow valley, we noted a 

 cock Pheasant on a stubble-field in a state of great agitation. He was 

 making a loud chuckling, was drawn up to his full height, and was 

 looking steadfastly towards one point. Turniug our eyes in the same 

 direction we beheld a poaching cat stalking some dozen or more young 

 Pheasants which were feeding in the stubble a little distance beyond this 

 gallant cock-bird, who was evidently doing his best to warn them and to 

 divert the approaching enemy. "We did not wait to see what would 

 happen, and hastened to the spot, but the cat had fled before we arrived 

 on the scene. Pheasants are sometimes embarrassing in their tameness. 

 We do not merely refer to the battue — where, posted at our corner outside 

 the cover, we have watched a score or more walking unconcernedly just 

 inside the fence, quite ignorant that it was expected of them to rise on 



