10 Natural History. 



Although there is usuallj' some attempt at concealment 

 under covert, pheasants' nests are not infrequently placed, 

 even by perfectly wild birds, in very exposed situations. 

 Mr. John Waltoii, 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 

 concerned, 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 took with infinite composure. She was very soon 

 discovered on her nest, and actually suffered herself when 

 sitting to be stroked down her plumage by the children and 

 others who visited her, and this without budging an inch. 

 In fact, she seemed rather to hke it. Perhaps she became a 

 pet with the neighbours from this unusual docihty, and her 

 brood (fourteen in number) was thereby saved : for every egg 

 was hatched, and the young birds have all got safely away." 



Habitually a nester on the ground, the hen pheasant will 

 sometimes select the deserted nest of a pigeon or squirrel as a 

 place for the deposition and incubation of her eggs. Several 

 examples of this occurrence are on record, but the following 

 may suffice to prove that the circumstance is not so infrequent 

 as may have been supposed. One correspondent writes as 

 follows : ' ■ Our head keeper told me that one of his watchers 

 had found a pheasant's nest up a spruce fir tree. I was 

 incredulous, so I went with him, and had the under-man there 

 to show ns. The bird was sitting on the nest — an old squirrel's. 

 The man said she had twelve eggs. He also told us that he 

 knew of another in a similar situation in the same plantation. 

 The nest I saw was about twelve feet from the ground. The 

 watchers found it in looking for nests of flying vermin, as some 

 had escaped the traps." 



Another states : " A keeper on the Culhorn estate, when 

 on his rounds in search of vermin, observed a nest, which he 

 took to be that of a hawk, on a Scotch fir tree, about fifteen 



