Courtship. 13 



ver}' much exhausted and half drowned, and were drifting 

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

 took them ashore, and, after being M-ell dried and placed in 

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

 The day was cold and frosty, and there was a slight fog on 

 the water." When winged and dropped into the water, 

 pheasants swim with facihty, and some instances are on record 

 of their diving beneath the surface and rising at some 

 distance. 



As the breeding season approaches, the crow of the male, 

 resembling the imperfect attempts of a young fowl, may be 

 heard distinctly. It is followed, and not preceded as in the 

 game cock, by the clapping of the wings ; the pheasant and 

 the domestic cock invariably reversing the order of the succes- 

 sion of these two actions. Like the domestic fowl, pheasants 

 will also answer any loud noise such as thunder, occurring 

 either by day or night ; they have been noticed replying 

 regularly to the signal gun at Shornchffe, which is fired at 

 sunrise and sunset, and this in coverts situated some miles 

 distant ; and the practice with the heavy guns at various 

 military stations will often cause a chorus of " cucketing " 

 in all the coverts for a great distance round. During the war, 

 particularly in the years 1917-18, it must have been noticed 

 by many persons in country districts that air raids on London 

 would be signalled by pheasants at quite long distances, even 

 when the noise of the bombardment was to human listeners 

 inaudible. 



The display of the plumage during courtship by the males 

 varies in almost every species of gallinaceous birds. That of 

 the pheasant was carefully described by the late Mr. T. W. 

 Wood, in an interesting article on the " Courtship of Birds." 

 Pheasants seem to possess no other mode of display than the 

 lateral or one-sided method. In this the males disport them- 

 selves so as to exhibit to the females a greater number of 

 their beautiful feathers than could otherwise be seen at one 

 view. In the peculiar attitude assumed by the male of the 



