STSUGTUBE, FOOD, AND HABITS. 



■reedsj and here and there pastures and fields are founds are 

 dts 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 aga^'nst its enemies, or during bad weather, or at 

 ■night." 



" In 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 winter." 



Like the domestic fowl, which it closely resembles in its 

 internal structure aud its habits, the pheasant is an 

 omnivorous feeder j grain, herbage, roots, berries, and other 

 small fruits, insects, acorns, beech mast, are alike acceptable 

 to it. Naumann 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 mezereum) , wild strawberries [Fragaria), 

 -currants, elderberries from the species Sambucus racemosa, 

 8. nigra, and S. ebulus ; blackberries {Bubus coesius, R. idoBUS, 

 and R. fruiticosus) ; mistletoe [Viscum album); hawthorn 

 {Crataegus 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 



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