BRITISH BIRDS 



Cock Pheasants appear to be susceptible in an extraordinary degree to any 

 air concussions or unaccustomed sounds, which they will at once challenge. 



Interesting letters were written to the Times and Field in January 1915, after 

 Admiral Sir David Beatty's fight in the North Sea, describing how the Pheasants 

 in Norfolk and Lincolnshire were all crowing, and how they foretold the news of 

 battle. Night raids by Zeppelins will also thoroughly upset Pheasants, as was 

 observed during such attacks lately. 



The other species represented on Plate 57 are : 



The Chinese Ring-necked Pheasant, P. torqtiatus, a native of southern China, 

 which was first introduced to Great Britain, as already mentioned, about the close 

 of the eighteenth century, and its blood can be traced in most of our cock birds 

 now, even when lacking the white collar, by the lighter and bluer upper tail-coverts. 



The Japanese Pheasant, P. versicolor, brought here about 1840, inhabits all the 

 islands of Japan with the exception of Yezo. 



According to Millais {The Natural History of British Game Birds), the general 

 habits of this species " are very similar to those of the Common Pheasant. The 

 spring crow is, however, quite distinct from the typical species or its other allied 

 forms. It is shriller, sharper, and more strained — seemingly somewhat of an 

 effort on the part of the bird. In the spring, at roosting time, they keep calling 

 repeatedly almost like a Peacock." 



The last species is the splendid Mongolian Pheasant, P. mongolicus, which was 

 brought to England as recently as 1901, and has now established itself in our coverts. 

 At the present time, owing to the importation of these and other varieties, the 

 greater part, if not all, of our birds are hybrids. 



74 



