PHEASANTS SCENTLESS WHEN SITTING. 73 



that it is one of our most useful birds, and a decided ally to 

 the game preserver, more especially as a destroyer of rats, of 

 which it kills large numbers. He says he has never known 

 the kestrel to carry ofE young broods of either pheasants or 

 partridges, but that the damage done by the sparrowhajvk is 

 often attributed to the Kestrel. 



The pheasant, from nesting on the ground, is peculiarly 

 exposed to the attacks of four-footed or ground vermin, and 

 the escape of any of the sitting birds and their eggs from 

 foxes, polecats, hedgehogs, &c., appears at first sight almost 

 impossible. This escape is attributed by many, possibly by 

 the majority, of sportsmen 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 of the keenest powers 

 of smell, 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 suppi'ession of the scent during incuba- 

 tion 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 

 excrement of a common fowl or pheasant, when the bird is 

 not sitting, has, when first discharged, no odour akin to the 

 smell of the bird itself. On the other hand, the excrement 

 of, a sitting hen has a most remarkable odour of the fowl. 



