48 MANAGEMENT OF PHEASANTS IN PEBSBEVES. 



attacks of foTir-footed or grouad vermin, and the escape of any of the sitting birds 

 and their eggs from foxes, polecats, hedgehogs, &c., appears at first sight ahnost 

 impossible. This escape is attributed by many, possibly by the majority, of sports- 

 men to the alleged fact that in the birds when sitting the scent which is given out 

 by the animal at other times is suppressed; in proof of this statement is adduced 

 the fact that dogs, even those with the keenest powers of smeU, will pass within a 

 few feet, or even a less distance, of a sitting pheasant without evincing the slightest 

 cognizance of her proximity provided she is concealed from sight. By others this 

 circumstance is denied, they reason a 'priori that it is impossible for an animal to 

 suppress the secretions and exhalations natural to it — secretion not being a voluntary 

 act. I believe, however, that the peculiar specific odour of the bird is suppressed 

 during incubation, not, however, as a voluntary act, but in a manner which is capable 

 of being accounted for physiologically. The suppression of the scent during incu- 

 bation is necessary to the safety of the birds, and essential to the continuance of 

 the species. I believe this suppression is due to what may be . termed vicarious 

 secretion. In other words, the odoriferous particles which are usually exhaled by 

 the skin are, during such time as the bird is sitting, excreted into the intestinal 

 canal, most probably into the caecum or the cloaca. The proof of this is accessible to 

 every one ; the excreta of a common fowl or pheasant, when the bird is not sitting, 

 have, when first discharged, no odour akin to the smell of the bird itself. On the 

 other hand, the excreta of a sitting hen have a most remarkable odour of the fowl, 

 but highly intensified. "We are all acquainted with this smell as increased by 

 heat during roasting ; and practical poultry keepers must have remarked that 

 the excreta discharged by a hen on leaving the nest have an odour totally 

 unlike those discharged at any other time, involuntarily recalling the smell of a 

 roasted fowl, highly and disagreeably intensified. I believe the explanation of the 

 whole matter to be as foUows : the suppression of the natural scent is essential to 

 the safety of the bird during incubation; that at such time vicarious secretion of 

 the odoriferous particles takes place into the intestinal canal, so that the bird 

 becomes scentless, and in this manner her safety and that of her eggs is secured. 

 This explanation would probably apply equally to partridges and other birds 

 nesting on the ground. 



The absence of scent in the sitting pheasant is most probably the explanation 

 of the fact that foxes and pheasants are capable of being reared in the same preserves ; 

 at the same time the keepers are usually desirous of making assurance doubly sure, 

 by scaring the foxes from the neighbourhood of the nests by some strong and 

 offensive substance. A very practical gamekeeper writes as follows: — "If any 

 keeper will find his nests and sprinkle a little gas tar anywhere about them, he will 

 find the foxes will not take the birds. I should, as a keeper, find every nest 

 possible, and dress the bushes, stumps of trees, &c., near the place of such nest. 



