80 The Natural History of British Game Birds 
have a peculiar affection for reeds and long grasses of all kinds, and will leave well- 
furnished covers and wander long distances in search of small spinneys and rough 
ground, even where big trees are absent, on purpose to attain such retreats. I think 
that the reason is partly the dislike of all forest birds to draughts, and partly because 
in such situations the greater warmth produces a greater abundance of insect life. In 
their home in China, Pheasants are most abundant in the dry reed beds fringing the 
margins of the great rivers, and the same applies to Turkestan, Afghanistan, Mongolia, 
and the Tian-Shan, in which our travellers after big game have always found them on 
the way to higher altitudes. In this country, where grass and reed beds are absent, 
I should describe a perfect Pheasant-cover as one on sandy soil having a slight 
southern slope, and protected on the ridge by a belt of Douglas firs ; the valley should 
be intersected by a stream fringed with long grass and reeds, and the adjoining fields 
in high cultivation of buckwheat, oats, wheat, and turnips. The actual cover should 
consist of thickets, kept open in spaces, of brambles, snowberry, thorns, a few hollies 
and other short berry-growing bushes, and the whole of the ground well covered with 
various kinds of grass that run well to seed. Oaks and firs are the best trees for 
roosting purposes, but should not be allowed to grow too densely. Some years ago 
it was considered a good plan to plant masses of Rhododendron ponticum as cover 
and shelter, but this shrub has proved to be a failure and a danger in the Pheasant- 
cover, both on account of its harbouring rats and rabbits, and for the fact that it " holds " 
Pheasants too closely when driving is in progress, and that the birds make no use of 
it in bad weather. It is also liable to spread too much, and thus ruin a wood. It is 
possible to have a few rabbits in the Pheasant-cover ; but if a large number are 
kept, and are not well fed in winter, they soon render a wood uninhabitable to 
Pheasants by destroying the underwood and forcing the birds to become even greater 
wanderers than they are by nature. Rabbits in a wood are in time sure to be 
neglected, and gain the upper hand ; when the undergrowth has departed the place 
becomes both draughty and no harbour for insect life, so necessary to the well-being 
of the Pheasant. 
In bad weather Pheasants stay in the cover or close under the shelter of a wood, 
but on fine days they like to come into the open and scatter about on the open fields 
within such a distance that a retreat homewards is easily effected in case of alarm. 
Unlike many game birds, except for intervals of sunning and dusting, they often 
continue to feed and roam about all day long, although their regular periods of feeding 
are in the morning and the evening. In still frosty mornings, both in autumn and 
winter, they are apt to wander to great distances, and so to pass from cover to cover. 
This is especially the case where grass-edged streams and thick hedgerows form 
adjuncts to their original home, and unless prevented by frequent driving in, they will 
soon leave an estate that is not perfectly congenial. Like all birds and mammals of 
a wandering nature and with a taste for a varied diet, the Pheasant soon gets tired of 
eating the same things day after day. The keeper's corn may be excellent, but satiety 
soon prevails, and they like to explore on the chance of gaining variety. Naumann, 
the German naturalist, gives the following list of the Pheasant's diet on the Continent, 
which is so similar to that in our own islands that I quote it. He says : — 
