THE PHEASANT OF THE WOODLANDS 33 



seemed not the least perturbed and said, " T thought 

 that they were probably blackbird's eggs I " ' 



The period required for the incubation of the eggs 

 of the pheasant has been variously estimated. Mr. 

 William Evans, who has made the incubation of birds' 

 eggs a subject of special research, states that the eggs 

 of the pheasant usually hatch out at the very end of 

 the twenty-third day. Of the eggs which this writer 

 placed under hens, two chicks hatched out on the 

 twenty-second day, thirty hatched on the twenty-third, 

 one hundred and three hatched on the twenty-fourth, 

 and five on the twenty-fifth. ' 



The Rev. G. C. Green has recorded a curious 

 instance of a cock pheasant voluntarily sitting on nine 

 eggs and hatching out the young {Field, June 27, 

 1 891). I have seen great numbers of poults trampled 

 upon by brooding fowls, a catastrophe which the chicks 

 escape in a state of nature. ' On the chicks being 

 hatched,' writes Mr. Djanaschvili, ' the mother first 

 dries and warms them under her wings, and then 

 feeds them with small grains. During the first few 

 days the chicks are almost entirely covered with a 

 delicate yellowish down, which in time turns greyish- 

 brown. As soon as the chicks get a little stronger, the 

 mother takes them to run about and search for food. 

 ' Ibis, sixth series, vol. iii. p. 76. 



