NESTING OF THE PHEASANT. 13 



Pheasant and other species, which will be noticed in the 

 chapters relating to those birds. 



In a state of nature there is little doubt that the pheasant 

 is polygamous. The males are armed with spurs, with which 

 they fightj the stronger driving away the weaker, and the 

 most vigorous propagate their kind. 



The nest of the female is usually a simple hollow scraped 

 in the ground. Aiter depositing her eggs (usually about 

 eight or nine in number) she is deserted by the male, and the 

 task of incubation and rearing the young depends on her 

 alone. The eggs vary in colour from a greenish brown to a 

 greyish green ■ in size they are, on the average, an inch and 

 five-sixths in length, by an inch and five-twelfths in width. 

 The period of incubation is twenty-four dajSi 



Hen pheasants, like common fowls, not unfrequently have 

 nests in common, in which case as many as eighteen or 

 twenty eggs will be found together. Sometimes three hens 

 will take to the same nest, and as many as thirty eggs have 

 been seen resulting from their copartnership. It is still 

 more singular that the pheasant and the partridge often share 

 the same nest. Mr Walter Yate, of Pemberton, Shropshire, 

 stated, " About a week ago one of my workmen informed me 

 that he had found a nest containing both partridge's and 

 pheasant's eggs. I accompanied him to the place, and 

 there saw the pheasant and partridge seated side by side 

 with the utmost amity. I then had the birds driven off, and 

 saw fifteen partridge's and sixteen pheasant's eggs laid 

 indiscriminately together. The eggs were placed as though 

 the nest had been common to both." Another correspondent 

 writes : " About three weeks ago, when walking round a small 

 wood belonging to me, and in which I usually breed a good 

 sprinkle of pheasants, I discovered a partridge sitting on the 

 edge of the bank of the wood ; and when she went off to feed 

 I was much astonished to find that she was sitting on nine 

 pheasant's eggs and thirteen of her own, and, after sitting 

 the usual time, hatched them all out." Mr. E. Bagnall-Wild 



