THE COMMON PHEASANT 



Dixon, in his Game Birds of the British Islands (1893), 

 has the following paragraph concerning the pairing of the 

 Pheasant : — 



" Semi-domestication appears to have so far affected the 

 morals of the Pheasant that it has caused it to depart from its 

 usual monogamous instincts and to adopt the looser ethics of 

 polygamy, just as the domesticated descendants of the wild 

 duck have done. In its native wilds the Pheasant appears to 

 be strictly monogamous, but in this country the male bird 

 almost invariably associates itself with several females (as 

 many as his prowess or his charms can keep or attract), and 

 upon them devolves all care of the eggs and young. Instances, 

 however, are on record where cock Pheasants in our islands 

 have been known to assist, not only in the duties of incubation, 

 but in attending to the brood. The Pheasant does not appear 

 to have been polygamous long enough to have certain 

 recognised pairing stations or ' laking ' places, but towards 

 the end of March the cock birds begin to crow and fight for 

 the females, each collecting and maintaining a harem varying 

 in size with his prowess. The hens go to nest in April and 

 May. The inherent timidity or shyness of this species causes 

 it to breed in seclusion, and the great nesting grounds are 

 well in the cover of the plantations and woods, although many 

 odd birds nest wide amongst growing crops, or in the hedge 

 bottoms. Sometimes the nest is placed by strange caprice 

 in an old squirrel's drey or on the top of a stack, and I have 

 known it in the centre of a tuft of rushes within a couple of 

 yards of a much-frequented footpath. Each female makes 

 a scanty nest under the arched shelter of brambles or dead 

 bracken, or very often beneath heaps of cut brushwood which 

 has been left upon the ground all winter. It is litde more 

 than a hollow, in which a few bits of dry bracken or dead 



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