14 PHEASANTS FOB COVEBTS AND AVIABIES. 



records that "in June his keeper noticed three partridge 

 nestSj with thirteen, eleven, and eleven partridges' eggs, and 

 four, two, and two pheasants' eggs, respectively in them. He 

 carefully watched, and in all three cases found that the 

 pheasants were hatched with the young partridges; and in 

 September the young pheasants still kept with their respective 

 coveys of partridges." Sometimes the hen pheasant, and not 

 the partridge, is the foster parent. In the neighbourhood of 

 Ohesham, on the 6th of May, 1873, three pheasants' nests were 

 observed to contain the following eggs :-^the first, on which 

 the hen was sitting, twenty-two pheasant's and two French 

 partridge's eggs; the second, eleven pheasant's and five 

 French partridge's eggs ; and the third, six pheasant's 

 and seven French partridge's eggs. Mr. W. D. Collins, of 

 Ouckfield, records the fact that he found a grey partridge 

 sitting on twelve of her own eggs, nine eggs of the red-legged 

 partridge, and nine pheasant's eggs, all the three species 

 having layed in the same nest. Mr. Higgins, of Hambledon, 

 states that " A pheasant hatched out, in a piece of vetches of 

 mine, seven partridges and five pheasants on July 6th. She 

 sat on nine of her own eggs and eight partridge eggs." In 

 some cases the nest is even of a more composite character, 

 and the eggs of the common fowl, and those of partridges 

 and pheasants, have all been found together ; and instances 

 have been recorded of wild hen pheasants laying in the neSts of 

 tame and also of wild ducks, and in the nest of the corncrake. 

 Although there is usually some attempt at concealment 

 under covert, pheasants' nests are not unfrequently placed, 

 even by perfectly wild birds, in very exposed situations. Mr. 

 John Walton, of Sholton Hall, Durham, related the following 

 account of the singular tameness of a wild bred bird : " A 

 hen pheasant — a perfectly wild one so far as rearing is con- 

 cerned, for we have no artificial processes here — selected as the 

 site for her nest a hedge by a private cart road, where she was 

 exposed to the constant traffic of carts, farm servants, and 

 others, passing and repassing her quarters, all of which she 



