() Natural History. 



oak-leaf these spangles (or the greater part of them) become 

 detached from it, and are scattered upon the ground under 

 the trees in great profusion. Our pheasants dehght in picking 

 them up, especially from the surface of walks and roads, 

 where they are most easily found. But as they are quite 

 visible even to human eyes, among the wet but undecayed 

 leaves beneath the oaks, wherever pheasants have been turning 

 them up, a store of winter food is evidently provided by 

 these minute and dormant insects with their vegetable incase- 

 ment, in addition to the earth-worms, slugs, etc., which 

 induce the pheasants to forage so industriously, by scratching 

 up the layers of damp leaves in incipient decay which cover 

 the woodland soil in winter. Not only have we found the 

 spangles plentifully in the crops of pheasants that have been 

 shot, but, on presenting leaves covered with them to the 

 common and to the gold pheasants in confinement, we observed 

 the birds to pick them up without a moment's hesitation, 

 and to look eagerly for more." 



The value of pheasants to the agriculturist is scarcely 

 sufficiently appreciated ; the birds destroy enormous numbers 

 of injurious insects — among them wireworms and the grubs 

 of the Bihionidoe, which travel in clusters devouring the roots 

 of grasses and cereals, and are picked up by pheasants hundreds 

 at a time. Several instances of these large numbers of 

 Bibionidce having been devoured by pheasants have been 

 recorded in the Field. From the crop of one pheasant over 

 1200 grubs have been taken ; from another, 726 grubs, one 

 acorn, one snail, nine berries, and three grains of wheat — 

 which would indicate a distinct preference for insect food 

 over cereals ; and the contents of a third crop, consisting of 

 more than 600 grubs of Bibionidce, removed by Dr. Hammond 

 Smith, may be seen in the Central Hall of the Natural History 

 Museum in South Kensington. As another instance of their 

 insectivorous character may be mentioned the complaint of 

 Waterton, that they had extirpated the grasshoppers from 

 Walton Park. They also occasionally eat molluscous animals. 



