STRUCTURE, FOOD, AND HABITS. !> 



inflamed, and death is freqnently the result. From the ]))■(>- 

 venticnlus the food passes into the gizzard, whieli is lined 

 with a dense thick skin; in its eavity the food is g-ronud 

 down to a pulp, the process heing assisted l»y the ])resi!uce (.>f 

 the unmerous small stones and angular pieces of gravel, \'c., 

 swallowed hy the bird. The food, thus ground to a piilji, 

 passes on into the intestines, which are no less than six feet 

 m length; in the upper pa,rt of this long canal it is mingled 

 with the bile formed iu the liver, the ]5ancreatic fluid, &c., 

 and, as it passes from one extremity to the other, the nourish- 

 ment iov the support of the animal is exti-acted ; this being 

 greatly aided by the operation of the two ca^ca., or Ijliiid 

 intestines, which are very large iu all the birds of this 

 group. 



The flight of the pheasant is strong, and is peid'ormed by 

 rapid and frecjnent beats of the wiug, the tail at the siime 

 time Ijeing expanded. The f(jrce with which the bird Hies 

 nuiy be inferred from the result which has not infrerpiently 

 occurred when it has come into contact with thit;k plate-glass 

 iu windows. Colonel Tni-bervill, writing from Ewenny 

 Priory, Glamorgan, in March, 18'.)7, states: "I was sitting ni 

 our drawing-room, with a large ]>late-glass window about 

 two yards behind me, when 1 heard a, lend crash, and a shower 

 of broken glass fell about nu', one jncce cutting my head. 

 On looking rcamd 1 saw a large hole iu the uppei- iiart of the 

 wmdow, and a hen jflieasaut lying, nearly ilead, between 3ft. 

 and -fft. from the wiudow inside the room. The plate glass 

 through which the pheasant ilew is one-tilth of ;ni inch thi(d-:, 

 and pieces of it were found on the cnrpet 14ft. fnnn the 

 win(hjw." A correspondeut states : "' A few days ago, a. ci_ick 

 phe;isiiut rose about three hnndi'ed y:ii-ds fi-om my house 

 and tk'W against the centre of a jilate-ghiss window, snuishmg 

 it into a thousand I'raguients. The glass was oft. Niu. by 

 3(t. ■tin., and ^in. thick; and such was the force of the 

 concussRiii that not :i single jiiece reiuaiued six inches >(|uare. 

 A slio-ht snow on the !j-round reudered the window more tluiii 



