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inhabitant of the woodlands, though not of the true forest ; for it affects groves where there are 

 small patches covered with low bushes and tangled herbage here and there, hazel coppices, and 

 non-evergreen patches of woodland where it is not too dry, and also swampy localities in the 

 woods ; but one seldom sees them on bleak open hill-sides or in the pine-forests, unless, as 

 Naumann remarks, to seek shelter from severe weather. Places where there are cornfields near 

 are especially suitable to this species ; for it thrives exceedingly well where it can find an abun- 

 dance of food near its woodland haunts. It is, as a rule, found on the ground, where it wanders 

 about in search of food, usually in places where the undergrowth is tolerably close ; but in the 

 heat of the day it is fond of sunning and dusting itself, like our domestic fowl. It scratches a 

 good deal where the soil is suitable, and picks the insects and seeds out of the ground as it turns 

 them up. When undisturbed it steps sedately and quietly along, the long tail being held almost 

 horizontal or slightly elevated, the head rather erect, and the ear-tufts invisible ; but directly its 

 suspicions are excited, and it apprehends danger, these tufts are at once erected, and are very 

 easily discernible even at some distance. When it takes alarm it stretches its neck, erects its 

 tail somewhat, and usually runs for a short distance before taking wing, dropping again into the 

 cover after it has flown a short distance, and seldom flying far. 



In the spring of the year the cock Pheasant's pairing-note or crow may frequently be heard, 

 usually in the early morning, when he flies down from his roost and calls the females round him. 

 This crow or call somewhat resembles the feeble attempts of a domestic cock, and is followed, 

 not preceded, by a clapping of the wings. 



The Pheasant is polygamous ; and in the spring of the year desperate combats often take 

 place for the possession of the females, for the cock Pheasant is extremely pugnacious. When 

 making advances towards the females this bird, like the common cock, depresses and opens its 

 wing nearest to the hen bird, the tail being expanded and thrown sideways, the ear-tufts being 

 greatly erected, and the bright-red skin round the eye being swollen and much more extended 

 than at other seasons of the year. 



The usual note of the Pheasant is a tolerably loud call, like the words cock-cock-cock, which 

 is almost always uttered when the bird suddenly flies up into a tree, and when it takes up its 

 quarters for the night ; and on a quiet evening one can, without any great difficulty, count the 

 number of cocks in a small plantation, and even ascertain the trees on which they roost. 



The food of the Pheasant varies greatly according to the season of the year. In the winter 

 it feeds chiefly on grain and seeds of various kinds, insects of almost all sorts being added to its 

 bill of fare as soon as the spring opens ; in the summer it devours insects, the tender shoots of 

 plants, &c. &c, fruits of various kinds as they ripen ; and in the autumn it feeds on ripe seeds, 

 berries, &c. &c. Amongst the vegetable substances it feeds on I may enumerate grain of various 

 kinds, wheat, buckwheat, lentils, oats, barley, rape-seed, peas, linseed, the seeds of many sorts 

 of grasses &c. (such as Panicum, Polygonum aviculare, P. dumetorum, P. convolvulus, various 

 species of Melampyrum), acorns, beech-mast, the seeds of the hemp nettle (Gcdeojpsis), the tender 

 shoots of grasses, clover, cabbages, pimpernel, young peas, the roots of the common silver weed 

 (Potentilla anserina), the tubers of the common buttercup and pilewort (Ranunculus iulbosus 

 and Ranunculus ficaria), the yellow flowers of the latter plant, berries of many kinds, such as 

 the hawthorn (Crataegus), mulberries, currants, brambles, red and black elderberries, mistletoe- 



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