FOOD OF THE PHEASANT. 



sionally carnivorous in tLeir appetite. A correspondent 

 writes : " This morning my keeper brought me a pied cock 

 pheasant, found dead (but still warm) in some standing barley. 

 The bird was in finest condition, and showed no marks what- 

 ever, when plucked, of a violent death. On searching the 

 gullet I extracted a short-tailed field mouse, which had 

 doubtless caused death by strangulation." And a similar 

 instance was recorded by Mr. Hutton, of Northallerton. The 

 Hon. and Eev. C. Bathurst, in a letter published in Loudon's 

 Magazitie of Natural History, vol. vii., p. 153, relates that Sir 

 John Ogilvy saw a pheasant flying ofi" with a common slow- 

 worm {Anguis fragilis) ; that this reptile does sometimes form 

 part of the food of the pheasant is confirmed by Mr. J. E. 

 Harting, who recounts, in his work on " The Birds of Middle- 

 sex," that "on examining the crop of a pied pheasant, shot in 

 October, 1864, I was surprised to find in it a common slow- 

 worm {Anguis fragilis) which measured eight inches in length. 

 It was not quite perfect, having lost the tip of the tail ; other- 

 wise, if whole, it would probably have measured nine inches." 

 In October, 1888, Mr. J. B. Footner, of Tunbridge Wells, 

 forwarded me a bottle containing three young vipers that 

 were found with five others of equal size in the crop of a 

 three parts grown hen pheasant, which, he himself shot as a 

 wild bird. Their length was slightly in excess of 7in., and 

 the weight of the largest was exactly ^oz. They were 

 apparently young of the same brood. In his letter Mr. 

 Footner recalled the fact that Sir Kenelm Digby, who 

 lived in the time of Charles I., and married a lady of great 

 beauty, used to feed his wife on capons fatted on young 

 adders, which were believed to preserve beauty. Sir Kenelm 

 Digby, whose portrait may be seen in Vandyke's Icono- 

 graphy, was remarkable as a charlatan, who proposed to cure 

 wounds by applying a sympathetic powder to the weapons 

 they were caused by, and who published a treatise on 

 " Secrets pour la Beaute des Dames," from which the viper 

 treatment is extracted. 



