STRUCTURE, FOOD, AND HABITS. 17 



removed by the parent birds^ and if so, by what means ; even 

 ■the following accounts do not throw much light upon the 

 subject. In the Zoologist for 1894 (p. 266) the late Lord 

 Lilford wrote that a pheasant had appropriated a wood- 

 pigeon's nest, in which sho laid nine eggs. Three young 

 birds were afterwards found dead at the foot of the tree 

 which contained the nest, the inference being that the 

 remainder of the brood had reached the ground in safety. A 

 correspondent of The Field stated that " A hen pheasant made 

 her nest in an oak tree, about nine feet from the ground. 

 'The young were hatched, and she succeeded in taking seven 

 young ones safely to the ground, leaving five dead in the nest, 

 ;and one bad egg." A second stated that in the park at 

 !Fillingham, Lincoln, a pheasant deposited eight eggs in the 

 nest of a woodpigeon in a fir tree upwards of sixteen feet 

 irom the ground ; she hatched out seven of them, but was 

 ■unfortunate, as four were killed; they were supposed to have 

 fallen from the nest. A third reported that on the estate of 

 'the Marquis of Hereford, at Sudborne Hall, Suffolk, a 

 ^pheasant had taken, possession of a nest deserted by a sparrow- 

 Tiawk, in a spruce fir, twenty-five feet from the ground, and 

 hatched eight young ones, seven of which she succeeded in 

 bringing safely down, but in what manner was not stated. 

 Mr. Arthur Cole, of Eccles Hall, Attleborough, Norfolk, 

 writing in 1897, states that " on May 7 I found a pheasant 

 ■sitting on eight eggs in an old squirrel's nest 16ft. 7in. from 

 'the ground. It is the more curious as the nest is by no means 

 ■on strong boughs, and, therefore, must sway tremendously as 

 ithe bird goes on and off." 



Although as a rule the male pheasant takes no heed of the 

 -eggs laid by the female, or of the offspring when hatched, 

 there are some well ascertained exceptions. Wild cock 

 ■pheasants have been seen sitting in nests in the coverts by 

 perfectly credible witnesses; and, although it has been 

 .suggested that the birds might have been hens that had 

 .assumed the male plumage, such an occurrence is even more 



c 



