Practical Game-Preserving. 3 



consequently, in these days of mowing-machines, the 

 number of nests and broods destroyed is far larger than 

 in the time of the scythe. However, a careful, considerate 

 preserver is aware of this habit, and can take the necessary 

 steps to ensure safety for his nests, guarding them against 

 both the human and mechanical mower, or removing the 

 eggs or chicks to be hatched out and reared by hand. 



The nest itself consists of at most but a few leaves or 

 dry wisps of grass, which go to form the only lining upon 

 which the eggs, eight to fifteen, are consecutively 

 deposited. When disturbed, the hen pheasant leaves her 

 nest reluctantly, and is only " pushed up " when conceal- 

 ment or safety is no longer possible; otherwise, when 

 quitting the " nide " or " nid," as the nest is technically 

 termed, she instinctively scratches a covering of leaves or 

 grass over it, and will also employ various artifices in 

 order to disguise its whereabouts from furred or feathered 

 vermin, by running some distance to or from it, always 

 approaching or leaving it in a different direction. The 

 hatching-season extends from the end of April to the 

 middle of July. As soon as the young are from twelve to 

 twenty-four hours out of the shell the hen leads them 

 forth, and the process of rearing into close consideration 

 of which there is no need to enter is diligently carried 

 on. If undisturbed, the hen pheasant adopts a particular 

 spot in the neighbourhood of which the young are kept for 

 some time, and as soon as strong enough they are intro- 

 duced to the mysteries of the hedgerows, and, later on, to 

 the corn, root, and pasture-fields. Should the brood 

 suffer one or two successive disturbances, they are speedily 

 led to the wood or covert, whence they issue only at feed- 

 ing-time. By the middle of September the youngsters 

 should be full grown, when, having moulted off their 

 fledgeling garb, they don that of the adult bird. Of 



