30 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PHEASANT 



Three young birds were subsequently found dead at 

 the foot of the tree which contained the nest, but it 

 was believed that the remainder of the brood had 

 reached the ground in safety.' 



Mr. DjanaschviU has incidentally raised the 

 question of the colour of the eggs. He describes 

 them as ivhitish speckled with greenish-yellow spots. 

 Now, all the pheasant eggs which I have seen were 

 either of a pale uniform blue— a scarce variety — 

 or they were uniformly olive-brown. I should have 

 thought that Mr. Djanaschvili had made a lapsus 

 calami, were it not that his experience receives inde- 

 pendent confirmation from another Russian gentle- 

 man, who states that the eggs of the pheasant of the 

 Caucasus ' are olive-coloured, with grey spots.' There 

 is nothing new in this, for Aristotle mentions it : 

 'The colours of eggs vary in different kinds of 

 birds. Some have white eggs, as pigeons, part- 

 ridges ; some yellow, as those inhabiting streams ; 

 others are spotted, as those of the meleagris and 

 pheasant.' ^ 



There is evidently room for further inquiry about 

 the eggs of the Caucasian pheasants. 



Another point of interest is the number of eggs 



' Zoologist, 1894, p. 266. 



'' History of Animals, book vi. chap. ii. 



