20 PHEASANTS FOR COVEETS AXD AVIARIES. 



1875, as my cui-iite was refcurniDg from taking the duty iu a 

 ueigliljouring church, a lien pheasant started from the ruad- 

 si(U' hedge close to tlie town, and thittered before him. While 

 watching her movonients he saw eleven young j^heasants, 

 ap];)arently newly hatched, flattering in the hedge, and at the 

 edge of a pond close hy. They soon scrambled intrj siime 

 cover, a,ud the mother Ijird fk'W oft' to rejoin them fmoi 

 another (piarter. 1 undei'stand, from iuf(uiry, that this is not 

 a solitary instance of such an early brood of pheasants in 

 Siiutli Uevon." 



( )i! the (jtlier hand, examples of nests deferred until very 

 late in the year are not unknown. Mr, ^V ^V Blest, of 

 Itiddenden, neai' Sta])l('liurst, writes: "^Vllilst partridge 

 slnjotiiig (111 September o, K^^T-f, we disturbed a sitting 

 pheasant, the nest coiitaiuiiig twebe eggs. AVe often hear 

 of the early nesting nf ga.nie birds, but rarely so late in 

 file season." On October 1, ly94, a, nest with eight eggs 

 was found in a turnip field in Forfarshire. In Octolier, l^fiy, 

 Mr. Walter R. Tyrell, of Plashwood, near iStowmarket, 

 forwarded to me a young pheasant, with the following letter : 

 " When pheasant shooting with some friends yesterday, the 

 loth inst., in this neighbourhood, one of the keepers picked 

 up dead, in a path in the wood we were in, a very young chick 

 pheasant; it could not have been hafchod more than a week. 

 My keeper tells me he has found them (but verv rarely) as 

 young iu iScpteinber. I forward the young chick to you, in 

 ordei- that you may inspect it." 1 carefully examined the 

 young bird, which was not more than two or three days old. 

 On October i^U, I U(J(), Afr. .\ . Dunnage, of Colohester, forwarded 

 to me a jihea'^ant chick, one of a, brood in a hedgerow, not 

 near to any covei't. These late-hatehed birds were in all 

 probability the produce of a second laying during- the 

 season. 



The artihcial state in wiiich these birds exist, as sup])lied 

 with nutritive food and protected in our coverts ami preserves, 

 leads to other de[)artnres from their natui-al conditions, 'j'luis 



