STRUCTURE. FOOD. AND HABITS. 



the outer or wilder coverts, feed, duriu^' mild as well as 

 severe weather, almost wholly ou ha/.el nuts. lu the first bird 

 that was remarked to contain them, they were reckoned, 

 and found t(j be twenty-four in number, all of full size and 

 perfect; in addition were many large insect larva\ Either 

 oats or Indian corn l)eino' thmwu out every morning before 

 the windows of the cottage for pheasants, I had an oppor- 

 tunity of observing their great ])refereuce of the former to 

 the latter. I remarked a pheasant one day in Islay takiug 

 the s]:)arrow's place, by picking at horsedung on the road for 

 uniligested oats.'' 



Among the more singular articles of food that form part 

 of the jdieasant's very varied dietarv may be mentioned the 

 spangles of the oak so common in the autumn ou the under 

 sides of the leaves. These galls are caused by the presence 

 of the eggs of a gall-tly (Nrur(ili'ni.-< Icnticnhrris) , which 

 may be reared from the spangles if they are collected 

 in the a.utumn, and kept in a, cool and rather moist atmo- 

 sphere during the winter. Al)out the fall of the leaf these 

 spangles begin to lose their flat mushroom-hke form and red 

 hirsute appearance, and become by degrees raised or bossed 

 towards the middle, in consequence of the growth of the 

 enclosed grub, which now becomes visible when the spangle 

 is cut o]ien. The pei'fect insect makes its appearance in 

 April and May. Some years since, Mr. R. Oarr Ellison 

 published the following accnunt of their being eagerly s(3nght 

 and dev(.)ured by pheasants in a wild state "Just before 

 the fall of the oak-leaf these sjiangles (or the greater 

 part of them) become detached irtnii it, and are scattered 

 upon the ground under the trees in great prolusion. Our 

 pheasants delight in ]jicking them u]), espeeially from the 

 surface of walks and roads, where they are most easily hnind. 

 But as they are ijuite visible even to human t'ves, among 

 the wet Imt uudecayed leaA^c-^ beneath the oaks, \\lierc\-er 

 pheasants have been turning them up, a store of winter f(jod 

 is evidently )n-o\-ide(l by these miuute and dormant insects 



