48 PHEASANTS 



Nor is the partridge the only bird 

 whom she will thus honour with her 

 unwelcome attentions. Hen pheasants 

 have at different times been known to lay 

 in the nests of capercailzie, greyhen, 

 grouse, domestic fowl, landrail, wild duck, 

 teal, owl and woodcock ; ' in the case of 

 the first and four last named the experi- 

 ment was foredoomed to failure ; but 

 instances are not wanting of the others 

 hatching and taking charge of the little 

 strangers. A hen pheasant has once been 

 found sitting on a black bird's nest in a 

 low thorn bush; the nest was full of 

 newly hatched blackbirds, while on the 

 ground beneath lay a single pheasant's 

 egg ^ — a nice problem in domestic life, to 

 which everyone must find their own 

 solution. 



Exceptional cases are from time to 



' As recorded in the columns of the The Field, 1860, 

 pp. 170, 183; 1865, pp. 420, 456; 1871, p. 321; 1874, 

 p. 524 ; 1881, p. 797 ; 1883, p. 805 ; 1888, pp. 64, 609 ; 

 1893, p. 606 ; 1894, pp. 818, 877 ; 1897, p. 721 ; 1898, 

 pp. 134, 227, 746 ; 1900, p. 734. 



* Recorded in the pages of Country lAfe, May 18, 1907. 



