SWIMMING OF PHEASANTS. 11 



pheasant is quite capable of swimming, as is proved by the 

 following instances. A well-known game preserver writes : 

 " When out walking to-day with my keeper, near the end of a 

 long pond running under one of my woods, we fancied that 

 we heard some young pheasants calling in the high grass. 

 On going up to the place where we had heard the noise, an 

 old hen pheasant got up and flew over the pond, which is 

 about eighteen or nineteen feet wide at this place and about 

 four feet deep. To our astonishment one of the yoiing birds 

 ran down to the water, went into it, and swam safely to the 

 other side after its mother. The young birds could not have 

 been more than fourteen days old." Old birds will also 

 voluntarily swim across rivers, as in the following instance : 

 " While flogging the waters of the Usk, I saw a sight that 

 struck me with astonishment. A fine cock pheasant was 

 walking about on the bank of the river, here quite thirty- 

 yards broad and running at the rate of four knots an hour. 

 On our approach he quietly took to the water like a duck, and, 

 after floating down stream a few yards, boldly struck across, 

 and, swimming high and with great ease, reached the bank 

 nearly opposite to the spot whence he set out." And other 

 similar cases are on record, thus — Mr. Donald Campbell, of 

 DunstafEorage, Oban, states : " Six pheasants, five cocks and 

 a hen, attempted to fly across Loch Etive from one of the 

 Ardchattan coverts on the north side of the loch, which near 

 that spot varies from half a mile to a mile in width. When 

 about half-way across one of them was seen either to fall or 

 alight on the water, and its example was immediately followed 

 by the other five. Fortunately, the son of the Ardchattan 

 gamekeeper, who was in a boat on the loch at the time, 

 observed the occurrence, and rOwed to the spot ; but as he had 

 some distance to go, by the time he reached the birds they 

 were very much exhausted and half drowned, and were drift- 

 ing helplessly with the tide. He got them into the boat and 

 took them ashore, and, after being well dried and placed in 

 warm boxes near a good fire, they all eventually recovered. 



