STRUCTURE, FOOD. AND If ADITS. 1;1, 



to feed I was much astonished to find th;it she was sittino- on 

 nine pheasant's etjg's and thirteen nf her own, and, after sittinf^' 

 the usnal time, hatclied them all out." Mi'. K. Jiagnall- Wild 

 records that ''in June his keejjer noticed three partridge 

 nests, with thirteen, eleven, and eleven partridges' eggs, and 

 four, two, and two pheasants' respectively, in them. He 

 carefully watched, and in all three cases found that the 

 pheasants were hatched with the young partridges; and in 

 September the young pheasants still kept with their respective 

 coveys of partridges." Sometimes the hen pheasant, and 

 not the parti'idge, is the foster parent. In thc^ neighbour- 

 hood (_)f Ghesham, on ilay ti, 1878, three pheasants' nests 

 were oliserved to contain the following eggs : — the first, on 

 which the hen was sitting, twenty-two pheasant's and two 

 French partridge's eggs; the second, eleven pheasn-iit's and 

 five French partridge's eggs ; and the third, six ])heasant's 

 and seven French partridge's eggs. Mr. W. L). L'ollins, of 

 Cuckheld, records the fact that he found a grey partridge 

 sitting on twelve of her own eggs, nine eggs nf the red-legged 

 partridge, and nine pheasant's eggs, all the three species 

 having laid in the same nest. J\Ir. Higgins, of liambledon, 

 states that " A pheasant hatched out, in a piece nf vetches nf 

 mine, seven parti'idges and five pluvisants on July 0. She 

 sat on nine of her own eggs and eight partridge eggs." In 

 some cases the nsst is even of a more cijmposite character, 

 and the eggs (jf the common fowl, and those of jiartridges 

 and pheasants, have all Ijeen found together; and instances 

 have been recorded of wild lien pheasants laying in the nests 

 of tame and also of wild ducks, and m the nests of the corn- 

 crake and woodcock. 



Although there is usually some attemjDt at concealment 

 under covert, pheasants' nests are not infrequently placed, 

 even by perfectly wild birds, in very exposed situations. Mr. 

 John Walton, of Sholton Hall, Dnrham, related the following 

 account of the singular tameness of a wild-ljred bird: ''A 

 hen ]iheasant — a perfectly wild one so far ns rearing is 



