MORE ABOUT GAME-BIRDS. 



miss, the bird either dropping with a thud, doubled 

 up, or else going off, sounding his derisive notes, to 

 some inaccessible spot, and you will not see him 

 again that day. 



The pheasant challenges on the ground as well as 

 when in the trees. I have watched him step in all 

 the glory of his war-paint on one of the countless 

 ant-hills so common in some park-lands, and chal- 

 lenge and drum in the most defiant manner possible, 

 with one or two hens close to him. 



The bird is considered to be a general lover, but I 

 have seen him with only one hen and her brood, 

 finding food for them with most affectionate assiduity. 

 I have seen this more than once. He is a most de- 

 termined fighter, and when a couple of cocks make 

 up their minds to settle some family affair, the fray 

 often ends badly for one of them. 



In my mind this beautiful bird is associated with 

 pleasant memories of old farms surrounded by 

 orchards, and oak copses beyond them ; and in 

 some old farmhouse, where sturdy keepers, men of 

 a bygone generation, were often coming round or 

 just dropping in, to hear how things were going, and 

 to have a jug of real honest, wholesome, home- 



