THE PHEASANT OF THE WOODLANDS 35 



warranted intrusion ; but even when the chicks have 

 hatched, the pheasant is a careless, clumsy mother, 

 content to abandon the majority of her family in any 

 emergency. The young poults feed on the wood-ant 

 and its cocoons, as well as a variety of insects ; a 

 light warm shower brings the worms to the surface 

 of the ground, where they are seized and eagerly 

 devoured. Keepers commonly suspend pieces of 

 carrion in such a way that the maggots or larv» of 

 the blow-fly may serve to regale their pheasant chicks, 

 which soon learn where to search for those that drop 

 to the ground. 



The chief enemies which the pheasants of the 

 Caucasus have to elude are the jackals, foxes, and 

 large birds of prey. Many eggs are destroyed, also 

 by the inundation of flooded rivers. In Great 

 Britain, the fox and the house-cat are the worst ver- 

 min that the pheasant dreads. The protective colour 

 of the plumage of the hen pheasant, coupled with the 

 fact of its scent being absorbed into the system 

 during the labours of incubation, play an important 

 part in its survival. The eggs and young are sought 

 after by such small quadrupeds as the squirrel, the 

 hedgehog, the stoat, and that bane of modern civili- 

 sation,, the hateful brown rat. It occasionally hap- 

 pens that a long-eared owl or a kestrel takes a fancy 



