18 PHEASANTS FOB COVEBTS AND AVIABIES. 



unlikely than that a cock should sit^ for these hens are always- 

 perfectly barren, and must have assumed the male plumage at 

 the previous autumnal moult ; in this condition they have- 

 never been known to manifest the slightest desire to incubate.. 

 Cooks have also been known to protect the young birds, as ini 

 the following instance, which occurred in Aberdeenshire : " I 

 have for the last fortnight almost daily watched a cock 

 pheasant leading about a brood of young ones, whose mother- 

 has evidently come to grief. A more attentive and careful 

 nurse could not be than this cock. He boldly follows his- 

 young charge on the lawns and to other places where he never- 

 ventured before, finds them food, and stands sentry over them 

 with untiring perseverance. They are thriving so well under 

 his care and growing so fast, that they will soon be able to- 

 shift for themselves." 



The same singular occurrence has also taken place in an. 

 aviary. Lord Willoughby de Broke some time since published 

 the following letter : " I have an aviary in which there is a. 

 cock pheasant and four or five hens of the Chinese breed ; at 

 the beginning of the laying season the cock scraped a hole in, 

 the sand, in which the hens laid four eggs ; he then collected 

 a quantity of loose sticks, formed a perfect nest, and began to- 

 sit ; he sat most patiently, seldom leaving the nest till the- 

 eggs were chipped, when the keeper, afraid of his killing 

 them, took them from him, and placed them under a hen 

 pheasant who was sitting on bad feggs ; they were hatched the- 

 next day, and the young birds are now doing well.-" Other 

 cases of cock pheasants incubating have been recorded in 

 The Field of July 5 and 19, 1892. 



Pheasants usually commence to lay in this country in 

 April or May, the date varying somewhat with the season and 

 the latitude. The eggs of penned birds have been found in 

 the first week of April, and even in the last week of March (see- 

 The Field, April 13, 1901). In consequence of the artificial 

 state in which they are kept in preserves, and the super- 

 abundance of food with which they are supplied, the produc- 



