2608 Birds. 



the pheasant sometimes becomes exceedingly pugnacious in disposi- 

 tion the following circumstances seems to prove. Not far from a large 

 wood was a farm-house at which game fowls were kept : these, instead 

 of roosting in an outhouse, betook themselves to an oak tree on the 

 borders of the wood : one morning the owner perceived the cock — a 

 fine young bird — lying dead beneath the branches, considerably beaten, 

 his plumage ruffled and his head besmeared with blood : he procured 

 another but an older bird of the same breed, which shared the same 

 fate : a third was procured, — it died also : the person, vexed at his 

 repeated losses, bought a fourth, — a large strong bird, high of mettle 

 and stout of limb, — and, having armed him with a pair of sharp steel 

 spurs, turned him adrift : he went to roost in the evening, and came 

 down in the morning alive and well ; but underneath the tree lay the 

 vanquished foe, — a large, well-fed, old cock pheasant, — which had no 

 doubt made his appearance in the night and met with a bolder anta- 

 gonist than he anticipated, and fell a victim to his imprudence : the 

 pheasant perhaps came with the intention of pairing with one of the 

 fowls, or it might be only joined the party for the sake of society. 

 During the earlier part of the winter pheasants roost in open trees, 

 such as the oak, elm, &c, but when frosts set in betake themselves to 

 hollies, laurels or spruce firs, and do not leave them again that winter. 

 Partridge {Perdix cinerea). It has always been to me a matter of 

 surprise that country gentlemen have not paid more attention to in- 

 creasing the partridges on their estates, and less to the propagating of 

 hares, rabbits and pheasants. Rabbits I consider merely (in the 

 same light as all animals that burrow in the ground) vermin, and un- 

 worthy to rank as game. Hares are little better. The partridge, on 

 the contrary, affords delightful shooting, is an interesting adjunct to 

 an estate, and one to which no sensible tenant objects. I have paid 

 close attention to the habits of this bird through many years, and I 

 am quite sure that he is most serviceable to agriculture, and more es- 

 pecially to lands occasionally under green cropping. For nine months 

 in the year the partridge lives almost entirely on insects and slugs, 

 amongst which the wireworm, ants and their eggs, Aphides, and various 

 other enemies to the farmer, are sought after by him with avidity : for 

 the remaining three months he feeds occasionally upon corn, but in 

 very small quantities. The partridge, however, picks up a scanty 

 maintenance on stubble, after the ears have been picked up by the 

 gleaners, and must then be said to be doing good service. During 

 the first year of their existence, partridges, T believe, feed entirely on 

 insects, for through the months of May, June and July, soft insects 



