SOME BIRDS 



allowed to rove at will, as free as their com- 

 panions, the grouse. They made themselves 

 at home at once, nested and brought forth two 

 broods of fully a dozen birds each, the first sea- 

 son. Of these nearly all died in early youth, for 

 the pheasant has a bad reputation as a mother. 

 Possibly this evil repute is gained in confine- 

 ment, where these birds are very rarely allowed 

 to bring up their own broods, common barn- 

 yard hens being substituted.. One might ex- 

 pect that in a number of generations the species 

 would, through disuse, easily lose the art of 

 caring for their young; but, be that as it may, 

 it is certainly true that when these birds first 

 came to the island, they did not rear more than 

 ten per cent of the brood, while now, after a lapse 

 of five years, they as certainly rear successfully 

 sixty or seventy per cent. I liberated my birds 

 at first on the lawn, from the box in which they 

 had travelled, and one of them went out of 

 the opening as if shot from a gun. He sailed 

 over the trees and out over the water at a pro- 

 digious rate, and we could see him gradually 

 lower, until he fell into the water with a splash, 

 half a mile distant. A boat was quickly sent 

 out, and the bird was picked up more dead 



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